Dachau is a medium-sized city in southern Germany, but that name will always be associated with a Nazi concentration camp located there from 1933 to 1945. More than 40,000 prisoners died there before the camp was liberated by U.S. military soldiers. Personal accounts of one person’s experiences there are offered by a Dachau survivor living in Nevada.
What U.S. Troops Found
When the soldiers arrived at Dachau, they found about 30,000 prisoners there, most near the point of starvation and one-third of them ill. Also discovered were corpses in train cars that nobody had done anything about. The troops were shocked at the conditions and seeing firsthand what these people had endured. The Zachor Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, started by the Dachau survivor, is intended to educate and make certain these atrocities are never forgotten.
Those members of the U.S. military had no idea the level of horror they would find at this concentration camp. They were angry enough to bring residents of Dachau, which was just a village then, to the camp to show them in person what had been going on.
Today’s Mission
Survivors worry that because this all took place so long ago, eventually, nobody will remember or care. Some have made it a mission to ensure that never happens. Within a few decades, everyone from that time will be gone. The youngest of these men and women are in their 70s now.
A survivor of the camp who has this kind of mission created the ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, which can be learned about at https://www.zachorfoundation.org.
