Was this also the fate of the grandparents, uncles, and aunts I had never known?' United States Army Investigation and Trial Records of War Criminals, National Archives and Records Service. Troops found only a few survivors among the 3000 corpses who were cared for in a field hospital. After several decades, the division then expanded its role to conducting entry-level training for soldiers of all branches of the Army in the northwestern United States. Staring at the human debris on These men were dedicated to continuing the spirit of fellowship and teamwork from which Requesting help from the 104th Infantry Division, the 3rd immediately begins transporting some 250 ill and starving prisoners to nearby hospital facilities. In addition to burying the dead, the Allied forces attempted to help and comfort the survivors with food, clothing, and medical assistance. by the hungry and desperate enemy, continued as tongue-twisting towns and Many of these scientists, including Wernher von Braun, were recruited by the US as part of Operation Paperclip. [4][7], Beginning in late January, many Jewish prisoners in poor physical condition arrived at the Mittelbau-Dora complex from Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen. The division first arrived on the scene, reporting back to headquarters that it had uncovered a large concentration camp near the town of Nordhausen. they worked several days carrying litter cases and collecting corpses by hand. The Timberwolf division made contact with the advancing Soviet armed forces at the end of the month. That's how I knew I had found something "big" that the Nazis were trying to keep secret. me he had been kicked and beaten repeatedly. In black forbidding nights and the long to be remembered and heart gripping story from first-hand accounts: "In Nordhausen the Division there were no living beings; only the distorted dead. Among the men of the 104th Infantry Division was a medic from Brooklyn, New York. [21] The division then crossed the Saale River and took Halle in a bitter five-day struggle from 15 to 19 April. bearers and medical technicians as well as any other men available from duties German, we rounded up German civilians on the streets of this Nazi city as we This was the only combat duty that the 104th Infantry Division has served during its history. Prisoners at Dora-Mittelbau had been forced to construct massive tunnels and work in underground factories producing V-2 rockets for the German military. walking into a world apart and returning to bring these shadow-men into the The 3rd Armored Division discovers the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp. have the gas chambers of Dachau or Buchenwald, a refinement apparently reserved [18] Eschweiler fell on 21 November and the enemy was cleared from the area west of the Inde River, including Inden by 2 December 1944. [16][c] Some had been dead before the air raid;[5] others were burned to death or died after the air raid from neglect. being eaten away by diarrhea and malnutrition. Recognition as a Liberating Unit (2), Private Galione had indeed found something "big". Their striped coats and prison numbers hung to their frames as a Massacre was the word here, knives and bullets for the males, desert death marches, men too weak to move dead comrades from their side. TTY: 202.488.0406, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, The Holocaust and World War II: Key Dates, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. It also served as a reminder of what they were truly fighting for. These units were redesignated from other training commands and put under the command of the division. liberation of the camp: I am still amazed today that anyone survived. [5][7] The camp commander was SS-Obersturmfhrer Heinrich Josten[de; pl; sv], who had previously worked at Auschwitz, and the deputy commander was SS-Hauptscharfhrer Josef Kestel[ja; de; pl; sv], previously a functionary at the Dora camp. Most of the bodies apparently lay untouched since Under the supervision of the US First Army, German civilians from Nordhausen carry victims of the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp to mass graves. considerably more so on this writer. The former soldiers of the 104th Infantry Division, bound together by common memories tunnels approximately fifty feet in width and height, connected laterally by attention and salute us as tears slowly trickled down his cheeks. It was in. He lay dust-covered, where he had nearly that the friend had been dead two or three days and unable to move his own among those who can't forget: "Nordhausen was to provide a ghastly traumatic Yet in a short period of two days I and many others of the heap of ashes each day. The 104th Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the US Army's Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988. The 91st Infantry Division (famously nicknamed as the "Wild West Division" with a "Fir Tree" as its Division insignia to symbolize its traditional home of the Far West) is an infantry division of the United States Army that fought in World War I and World War II. remainder died mainly from disease and starvation. Hitler had hoped that the V2s - the "V" standing for "Vergeltung", meaning "Retaliation" in German - [4][7], On 2 April, 3,000 prisoners were transported to the Mittelbau main camp and to Ellrich, a subcamp of Mittelbau. An hour-by-hour account of the liberation of concentration camp Dachau, based on numerous interviews with former prisoners and the American soldiers who liberated them. 1945, the 104th Infantry Division, as part of the U.S. VII Corps, was teamed [1] The death rate was so high that a special work detail was formed to move the corpses. Written & Submitted by Heather Smith bodies. gruesome sights at Nordhausen upon the men of the 104th: "For days and weeks, even months afterwards, the shoulder insignia and to honor the memory of those gallant men who perished in battle. lying around the camp and some 750 emaciated, starving and ill prisoners who had been left behind when the SS evacuated the inmates on death marches. 9th Infantry Division . [18] During this time, some of the division's assets fell under command of the 1st Infantry Division and the 3rd Armored Division. ", "Everything that is now in space had its origins Laboring in the dark, unventilated caverns; the prisoners endured back-breaking labor, malnutrition and disease, as well as the random brutality of the guards. Malnutrition and disease were rampant, and corpses lay unburied. Working and living conditions at the camp were deplorable. Joining the Battle of the Scheldt, the division moved into defensive positions in the vicinity of Wuustwezel, Belgium on 23 October 1944. Additional Nordhausen accounts can be found in our War (5), August of 1943 saw the arrival of first prisoners at camp Mittelbau Dora. [7] The conditions were used to motivate prisoners in other subcamps to work hard lest they be sent to die at Boelcke-Kaserne. Survivors of the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp, located near Nordhausen, Germany, April 14, 1945. executed at the slightest suggestion of sabotage. acquitted.(13). Used as an overflow camp for sick and dying inmates from January 1945, numbers rose from a few hundred to over 6000, and the conditions saw up to 100 inmates die every day. Sleet beat down on the troops, who went for days soaked to the skin and slimy with mud. He was comparatively healthy, as They are Willy F. James Jr., for scouting German positions while being pinned down by machine gun fire,[39] and Cecil H. Bolton, who led a company of men on the attack despite wounds from a mortar shell. [11] The barracks was located near railyards and factories, which were considered military targets;[5] Boelcke-Kaserne had not been marked with a Red Cross symbol. The SS was in charge of the As an American of Armenian ancestry I had The US Army immediately had the prisoners transported out of the camp so that they could be treated by physicians. immediately following the war. experience of the dead and dying prisoners they encountered at the Camp, an experience which was one of the most profound of their entire military careers during World War II. From 1943 until 1945, 60,000 prisoners had toiled In the eight days from July 18 to July 25, 1918, the 104th Infantry was to pass through a crucible of fire and steel. The Nizkor Project, http://nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/camps/buchenwald/press/reuters.040395 (Oct. 24, 2009). (1) By April of 1945 the Timberwolves were nearing the town of Nordhausen. I saw one man feebly stagger to spared in the Division were rushed to the scene to give medical aid. The Journey of Private Galione: How America Became a Super Power. A new subcamp of Buchenwald Concentration Camp was thus founded: the Arbeitslager Dora (Dora labour camp), as it was officially designated by the SS. didn't know. Article. Sobered and drained each of us eventually left the area, in the words of a poet (15) The men of the 104th certainly must have agreed. Washington, DC 20024-2126 [1] The division was assigned to III Corps of the Ninth United States Army, part of the Twelfth United States Army Group. webmaster@104infdiv.org, TO ORDER CONTACT THE WEBMASTER [26] Meanwhile, the 3rd Brigade, 104th Division,[27] as well as the 4th Brigade, 104th Division both activated at Fort Lawton, Washington. "Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp." Mr. Downs certainly gives us a glowing account of the Timberwolves' bravery and military prowess, but nowhere in the article does he describe the 104th Division's role in liberating camp Mittelbau Dora, or the horrific Heinrich Schmidt and an SS guard were tried in 1947 in the Dora Trial at Dachau for abuses at Boelcke-Kaserne, but they were acquitted for lack of evidence. . The Americans were given responsibility for taking 22 miles of wet, low country from the Belgian border to the Meuse (Maas). he had been in camp only three months. Washington: Pleasant Word Press 2004. In the 19 years since this program was inaugurated, the Museum and the Center of Military History have recognized 35 U.S. Army divisions for their heroism, gallantry, and help in liberating prisoners The order was, "You will work." The war-hardened soldiers of the 104th had seen the worst in humanity. Battalion,104th Infantry Division, was there and explained the impact of the Main telephone: 202.488.0400 At Buchenwald, whose main camp contained over 110,000 prisoners by February 1945, many prisoners were forced to work in a factory onsite. They were still alive. More than 3,000 prisoners were forced into an area of only 1,800 square metres (19,000sqft). According to some accounts, soldiers of the 104th Infantry Division killed German civilians in Nordhausen who denied knowledge of the atrocities, believing that they were partially responsible. I followed the trains all the way down, for miles, and found a train car filled with dead Caggiano, Robert . When the first American GI's arrived in the . (Accessed Oct. 22, 2009). -- - French At the outbreak of World War II, the 104th Infantry Division began preparing to participate in the war in Europe. We saw, at of them appeared to have been starved to such an extent that they were mere terrible evidence of atrocity. Nordhausen was liberated by the 104th US Infantry Division on April 12th, 1945. Buchenwald concentration camp; and The 104th Timberwolf Division received two Medals of Honor, 24 Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, 786 Silver Star Medals, six Legion of Merits, . There are those who now maintain Hitler's holocaust never Note: The 104th . Conditions were rainy, chilly, wet, and muddy. continued to contend with sporadic counter-attacks from the resisting German army. noticed; I would say she was about seventeen years old. flesh and bones into the cement floor. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky also served with the 104th during WW2. This was my signal to get into (10) Mary Galione-Nahas, The Journey of Private Galione: How America Became a Super Power, (Washington: Pleasant Word Press 2004). Dying on the second floor were, upon later count, In addition to burying the dead, the Allied forces attempted to help and comfort the survivors with food, clothing, and medical assistance. It was briefly inactivated from 2008 until 2010 when it was . Hitler's once mighty war machine was beginning to fail, but the 104th The Timberwolves travelled across France by train and debarked near the Belgian-Dutch border and waited for word to take part in a new allied offensive, Operation Pheasant, taking the place of the experienced British 49th Infantry Division on the left flank and the Polish 1st Armored Division on the right. The Dora-Mittelbau (also known as Dora-Nordhausen or Nordhausen) camp was established in central Germany near the southern Harz Mountains, north of the town of Nordhausen. might be saved. TTY: 202.488.0406, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, The Holocaust and World War II: Key Dates, The Nazi Persecution of Black People in Germany, The Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936: African American Voices and "Jim Crow" America. The death toll from the first raid was 450 in the block for tuberculosis sufferers,[11] and the second raid killed about 1,000 people. The 104th began combat operations on 25 and 26 October and began to attack the Germans, who offered varying levels of resistance. As the 104th advanced into Thuringia, the unit overran Nordhausen and the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp on April 11, 1945. With care, he was lifted upon a litter and taken to our waiting [20] After a period of mopping up and consolidation, it participated in the trap of enemy troops in the Ruhr pocket. By the end of World War II, many soldiers had witnessed the Stanley Dunn," National Timberwolf Association, www.104infdiv.org (accessed Oct. 22, 2009). As the 104th advanced into Thuringia, the unit overran Nordhausen and the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp on April 11, 1945. Other survivors were cared for in apartments confiscated from the Germans. [14] That same day, General Allen received orders from the U.S. First Army, releasing it from Canadian control. The Timberwolf division made contact with the advancing Soviet armed forces at the end of the month. under the casing were neatly piled about seventy-five bodies, a sight I could The 10th Armored Division participated in major WWII campaigns and is recognized for liberating a subcamp of . There were no toilets and there was no water. Within a six month period, the labor camp had grown to contain 12,000 prisoners, and by the spring of 1945, the number of prisoners neared 40,000.(6). The 104th Infantry Division during World War II As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they found tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners in deplorable conditions. This meeting helped hasten the liberation of the city of Halle and spare it from further destruction. Vengeance, was the pilotless radio-controlled aircraft carrying a Zevenbergen was captured and the Meuse was reached on 5 November. In this large motor shop The US Army immediately had the prisoners transported out of the camp so that they could be treated by physicians. Sobered and drained each of us eventually left the area, in the What were some similarities between racism in Nazi Germany and in the United States, 1920s-1940s? Sergeant Ragene Farris of the 329th Medical Some prisoners were able to escape during the bombing and hid in the nearby woods. that there had been no activity by the trains all night, I was beginning to think that my gut feeling was wrong. of the large factory areas of the city. Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust. The "Timberwolf" division advanced into Belgium by the end of the following month. skeletons wrapped in skin. The very few walking skeletons able to stand wandered about dazedly in There were lots of accidents, people buried alive under rocks and rubble. The overall outlook changed to one of personal hatred and loathing of anyone wearing the German uniform.(12). death had overtaken them, but some were stacked like cordwood under stairways. Maintained by Sandra Eberhard, National Timberwolf Pups Association member. Rosenbach was one of the fortunate few to survive Camp Mittelbau Dora. [24], Two additional provisional brigades were created under the 104th Division in 1999; the 8th Brigade, 104th Division was created at Fort Lewis as a unit for training Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets, and the 4690th US Army Reserve Forces School at Fort Shafter, Hawaii was redesignated as the 4690th Brigade, 104th Division, for service as a multifunctional training unit. . Liberation of Achtmaal by the 415th Regiment of the 104th Inf.Div. [23], In 1967, the division was reorganized. Requesting help from the 104th Infantry Division, the 3rd immediately begins transporting some 250 ill and starving prisoners to nearby hospital facilities. machine was crumbling, but counter attacks and stubborn pockets of resistance, A million or more Armenian lives destroyed at the whim of those who ruled the old Turkish Ottoman Empire. The 104th Timberwolf Infantry Division has held a reunion for the past 69 years, and will meet again this year at a celebration . Time dulls the impact of events. morning of 11 April dawned with yet another strangely named town to be reckoned (14) Kenneth T. Downs, "Nothing Stopped the Timberwolves," The Saturday Evening Post (August 17, 1946): 20-43. (3) Camp Mittelbau Dora was established villages like Holzhausen, Niederingelbach, Dalwigsthal, Strasseberbach & of gathering at the national reunions, the final Timberwolf reunion was held in September, 2010 and the difficult decision to end the National Timberwolf Association was These men were dedicated to continuing the spirit of fellowship and teamwork from which their war experiences had instilled. [15] The division then organized and assembled at Manche, France before heading into combat.[16]. One hunched-down French boy My legs were tired, weak, and the wound in my leg was raw. [7][5] According to the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, "it is difficult to describe in words" the conditions in the second garage, where prisoners were left to die. became a name to be stamped forever in the annuals of Timberwolf and The Washington, DC 20024-2126 5,000 people and injured 35,000 more. (11) The U.S. Army rushed medical personnel, food, and equipment to the camp. (8) Richard Murphy, "Survivors of V2 Nazi Slave Camp Mark Liberation," Reuters, April 10, 1995, under "The Nizkor Project," http://nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/camps/buchenwald/press/reuters.040395 (Oct. 24, 2009). The 104th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army.