The Dachau Massacre. The Slaughter of Nazis in Death Camps During WW2.

The Dachau Massacre. The Slaughter of Nazis in Death Camps During WW2.

Everyone has heard of the Holocaust, the slaughter of European Jews during the years of World War 2. One thing that is not often spoken about however are the murders of Nazi Prisoners of War during WW2. The Dachau Massacre (otherwise known as the Dachau liberation reprisals) obviously does not rival the Holocaust, but it is an event which is not widely known. It is an event which this thread will be looking at today.

Before we get started, it must be noted that this thread is in no way anti-American, even though it does focus on a specific action committed by American forces during WW2. I am merely providing information for the interested reader. Now, lets get on with it...

The Massacre in question occurred at the very first Nazi death camp, the Dachau concentration camp. The Dachau concentration camp was opened on March 22nd 1933, and was described by Heinrich Himmler as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners." It was located in the south of Germany, and was used as a prototype. One in which all other concentration camps would eventually be inspired by. The Dachau concentration camp's layout was used by all later camps of Nazi Germany.



The camp was used primarily to hold German nationals who were considered enemies of the Reich. This was the pinnacle purpose of the camp both prior to, and during WW2. The rest of the camp's population was made up of people hailing from 30 other countries. The camps original purpose did not remain in tact, as after the prison had fallen, it was used by the allies to detain German soldiers, the majority being SS.

After the camp had been "liberated" by the USA's 45th Infantry Division (of the 7th US Army). the soldiers thought it would be a good idea to massacre the newly found prisoners of war, as well as the former prison guards. The USA allowed the former prisoners to torture and execute the former guards also. Accounts of the massacre do differ, and this thread will cover the different accounts further on.

Sparks account

Lt. Col. Felix L. Sparks stated that about 50 POW's were watched over by I company of the 45th Infantry Division. He left I company in charge while he advanced towards the centre of the Dachau concentration camp. After hearing gun shots, he ran back to the area where he stated that around 12 German soldiers had been killed by a 19 year old machine gunner. He proceeded to dismiss the gunner before replacing him with another.

Buechner account

Buechner (who was a medic during the years of WW2) had given an account to an investigator whereby he stated that around 15 German soldiers had been killed. Later however, Buechner wrote a book titled Dachau: The Hour of the Avenger: An Eyewitness Account. In this book, Buechner stated that US forces had killed 520 German soldiers, including 346 more under the command of 1st Lt. Bushyhead. This latter claim of his is questionable at best considering he did not witness the event. Furthermore, no such second shooting had been recorded.

The general consensus is that around 15 German soldiers were killed by US forces. But ask yourself, does the top picture in this thread looks like it contains 15 dead soldiers? I personally feel that the photo proves that the accounts above were either wrong or falsified. While i don't believe 866 soldiers were killed, i also do not believe that under 50 soldiers were killed.

Thank you all for reading,

Daas.

PS: To be fair, the US soldiers involved had witnessed many dead and decomposing bodies in and around the Dachau concentration camp. As such, the soldiers may had felt deep anger at the soldiers there, thus deciding to slaughter them. Regardless, this event in history is not widely known or talked about.

Sources

www.canadaatwar.ca...
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

Great post and the first i have heard of this. I share that the picture shows more dead prisoners that accounts state. Worth a look is this

Originally posted by TheDoctor46
Great post and the first i have heard of this. I share that the picture shows more dead prisoners that accounts state. Worth a look is this

Thanks!

Yeah, it makes me wonder just how many German soldiers were killed at the camp...

Love your name by the way. Valentino Rossi is awesome.

Are we supposed to feel sympathetic?

reply to post by daaskapital

To be honest, I don't know why they spared those four in your first pic.

Originally posted by WaterBottle
Are we supposed to feel sympathetic?

It is not for me to say.

I just thought it was an interesting event that the people of ATS may find intriguing.

A star and a flag.

I can't say I disagree with gunning down the alleged perpetrators of the various horrors at Dachau. Were I the senior Allied commander on the spot, I probably would have turned a blind eye.

Intelligence reports and even mainstream media reporting of the day show that the US .gov were aware of not only Germany's persecution of Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, communists, and the disabled, but that they were aware of an eventual exile or extermination policy for all of the groups in question.

While the scale of the death and human misery would have come as an earth-shattering realisation for the men on the ground during the liberation of Dachau and other concentration camps, their bosses had a very good idea of what had been happening.

I wouldn't expect there were any courts martial of the personnel involved in these extrajudicial killings. They, their commanders and the former inmates would probably have seen it as purging the world of a little bit of evil and given them a pat on the back.

I'm looking forward to more of the story. Thanks for posting.

reply to post by daaskapital

That type of incident isn't all that surprising,considering,for example,the Malmedy massacre where 80 US POW's were murdered by members of Kampfgruppe Peiper part of the 1st SS panzer division during the Ardennes offensive.
I would guess that the US servicemen who liberated Dachau were at least aware of that incident.

Incidentally,Dachau was used by the allies to hold SS Prisoners accused of war crimes between 1945 and 1948.

Thanks for bringing this up OP.
However, this is just the tip of the famous iceberg.

Just google: Rhine meadow camps

Those who care to do their own research will find that Eisenhower ordered German POW's be allowed to starve to death, it is estimated one and a half million did so, what you have to do is Google 'Eisenhower's prisoners' there is a report that a trainload of food sent from Switzerland to German was returned, unopened. there is a lot of reading.

reply to post by daaskapital


Neo-nazis posting on the ATS forum, trying to find ways to excuse the slaughter of 30 million victims in the concentration camps by making us feel sorry for these thugs and psychopathic animals being executed by russian and american troops.

Nice one.

Whats next? Some kind of sob story where we are to feel sorry for the Pol pot murderers that slaughtered over 2 million cambodians?

Originally posted by johncarter
reply to post by daaskapital

 

Neo-nazis posting on the ATS forum, trying to find ways to excuse the slaughter of 30 million victims in the concentration camps by making us feel sorry for these thugs and psychopathic animals being executed by russian and american troops.

Nice one.

Whats next? Some kind of sob story where we are to feel sorry for the Pol pot murderers that slaughtered over 2 million cambodians?

edit on 30-12-2012 by johncarter because: (no reason given)

I'm, sorry, but what?

Can't one just post an interesting piece on ATS nowadays without being labelled one thing or another? I clearly stated in the OP that the Dachau Massacre has nothing on the Jewish Holocaust.

Neo-nazis posting on the ATS forum, trying to find ways to excuse the slaughter of 30 million victims in the concentration camps by make us feel sorry for these animals being executed by russian and american troops.

reply to post by johncarter



Get over yourself. Your attitude is disgraceful, accusing members of being Neo-Nazis.

In no way has anybody in this thread tried to excuse the slaughter committed in concentration camps.

This is a historical event which some may not be aware of.

Why not discuss the topic instead of throwing out over the top knee-jerk reactionary posts like the one you did.

Originally posted by Regenstorm
Thanks for bringing this up OP.
However, this is just the tip of the famous iceberg.

Just google: Rhine meadow camps

No worries!



I did not know about that! That is insane!!!!! Thanks for the heads up mate!!!!

reply to post by Kram09


Thanks mate!

S and F OP

Nice to see things like this brought up things like this happened on all sides in that war and still goes on in wars today.

As for posters who say should we feel sympathetic or why did they leave the last 4 only if it's in your human nature. Troops follow orders and if these POW's were killed in cold blood then their killers are no better than SS death squads and IF those killings were ordered I guess it's true about war is written by the winners and double standards are very well evident.

Don't get me wrong war is war and hate is hate but if you hold the rule book in your left hand while breaking said rules with the right hand then your nothing but hypocrites, Just like some western nations at the moment

Originally posted by WaterBottle
Are we supposed to feel sympathetic?

This was my first reaction, but then i thought Hitler did conscript people and use nasty psychological tactics to make people fight for him.

So these Nazis could of just been your average guy who didn't want war, but in the end got executed.

If anybody has seen the film Shutter Island (or perhaps read the book) there is a scene where such an event is shown.

Ahh yes the slaughter of Nazi POWs at the hands of the Americans and other forces. The thing with many Nazis was that many simply tried to be captured because they didn't agree with the plan they were told to carry out then ended up executed. Same thing happened to Iraqis and Afghanis but we will never hear about it.

Such is war that the rear atrocities of war are the first things swept under the rug.

It's not uncommon for the retaliating force tonbe MORE savage and barbaric than the attacking force and then accepted given the circumstances which is war crime. Just because my soldier killed one of your guys don't chop the head off of two of my pow soldiers and thats what usually happens.

reply to post by definity


Exactly apparantly Germany had this many armed servicemen



Germany had 13,600,000 people in the Army, 2,500,000 in the Air Force and 1,200,000 in the Navy, plus around 1 million SS troops.

Now if that many people are evil out of about 60 million then I guess they should have destroyed the entire german race just to be sure they don't go on a mass killing spree again, Personally I don't buy it. They followed orders just like any other soldier