Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

The Liberators

Fall, ’42: Montgomery stopped Rommel at El Alamein

Nov: Americans landed in N. AfricaMay, ’43: Rommel surrendered in Tunisia

Spring, ’43: U-boat menace in the Atlantic ended1943: intense Allied bombing of German citiesBattle of Stalingrad: Russians lost more men in this battle than USA did total in WWII

Germany surrendered with less than 1/3 of the forces that entered USSRKiev, Leningrad soon freed (Winter, ’43-44)

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery

German General Erwin Rommel, “The Desert Fox”

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

June 6, ’44: D-DayAug. 25: Paris reclaimedSept. 3: Brussels freed

Dec. ’44: Battle of the Bulge

Last great German offensive

Initially successful

D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion in history

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Russians pushed hard from the East

Apr. 21, ’45: in the Berlin suburbsApr. 29: Hitler committed suicide

May 8, ’45: Germany surrendered

The 1000-Year Reich had lasted 12 years

Residents clean out ruins in Berlin, July 1 1945

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Jew-killing went on as the Germans were being defeated

1944: Hungarian Jews deportedGermany sensed Hungary was approaching Soviets for peaceMarch 19, ’44: Germany invaded Hungary

Eichmann and his “Jewish experts” set up HQ in Budapest

The deportation of the Hungarian Jews

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Ghettos continued to be liquidatedKovno (July ’44) evacuated before approaching Russians

Lodz (Sept. ’44): Jews sent to Auschwitz

The remains of the Kovno Ghetto, which the Germans destroyed in search of hiding Jews

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

July 23, ’44: Russians overran Majdanek

Nazis hadn’t been able to destroy all their evidenceRussians brought in Allied journalists

Himmler ordered that no camps or inmates were to fall into enemy hands

July, ’44: Stutthoff camp continued to be built for slave labor near Danzig

Fall ’44: evacuations from Auschwitz All camps in the area

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Death marches began as Germany tried to bring all prisoners inside German borders

¼ million perished on the marches

Oct. ’44: Sonderkommandos revolt in Auschwitz

Jan. 18, ’45: last large evacuation from Auschwitz

Elie Wiesel was in this group, working at the I.G. Farben factory

One march from Birkenau lasted 6 weeks

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Death marches of prisoners back into the Reich

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Western camp liberation –

Communication between Germany, their camps and satellite camps had broken down due to Allied advancement

Junior officers in the satellites were often forced to make own decisions

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

April 4, ’45: Americans arrived at sub-camp of Buchenwald

Shock, horror, devastationPatton at one time removed himself and got violently ill

Messages were sent to Allied forces of what to expect in the camps

Request to London and Washington to send gov’t officials to view them

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

April 9, ’45: US troops liberated slave labor camps at Dora

No gas chambers or instruments of tortureSite of the area where Nazis were building the V-1 and V-2 rockets

Rockets built in great underground tunnelsBefore US arrived, Nazi scientists and troops were evacuated to BavariaOne death march ended with the death of hundreds of Jews in a burning barn

Unit9: Liberation and the Aftermath

April 11, ’45: US reached Buchenwald

Still 20,000 inmates alive1 of our meals = 4 day’s rations in that camp

American officers and troops survey the Buchenwald concentration camp. General Eisenhower is at center.

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

April 15, ’45: British liberated Bergen-Belsen

Anne Frank had died in Belsen only weeks beforeBritish found 1000’s of unburied bodies

17,000 died in March55,000 inmates alive10,000 corpses13,000 died in first few weeks after liberation

Belsen had begun as a holding camp for German prisoners in ’43

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen

Top left – sign posted by the British liberatorsTop right – recently liberated menLeft – Female SS guards now in captivity

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

April 15, ’45: death marches from Sachsenhausen and Ravensbruck (women’s prison)

April 27, ’45: massacre at Mariubad 2,775 Jewish laborers

1,000 were killed by machine guns and grenades1200 were killed at Thereseinstadt500 were killed upon arrival, south of PragueOnly 75 survived the march…

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

April 29, ’45: US troops reached Dachau

1st of the camps (the “model camp”)Medical experiments had been performedRailway cars piled high with dead bodiesUS troops shot some SS guards outright

Some prisoners were allowed to work their will on the SS

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

May 5, ’45: Mauthausen last camp US liberated

“Category 3” campHarshest designationThe rock quarry camp

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

May 29, ’45: Kaufbeuren

Mental hospital/sanitarium near Bavaria

Upon capture of the town, Allied troops didn’t enter the hospital for 33 days!

At 1:10 pm on May 29, the doctor recorded the death of a 4-year old boy due to “typhus”

Euthanasia continued for 30 days after German surrender

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

US troops returning home found that people wouldn’t listen to their stories, people couldn’t understand…

It wasn’t until the late ’70’s-early ’80’s that liberators began to be heard

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

The Survivors

Liberated but certainly not completely freeFreedom to mourn, to become conscious of the loss, to feel guilty at surviving

Psychological and spiritual traumaFew wanted to hear the stories right away“Even after his defeat, the enemy continued doing his evil…”Homelessness – where to go?SilenceMemories of death

Wounded souls

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Aftermath for survivors, 1945-50

60,000 Jews alive in Germany

1st post-war home was a Displaced Persons camp

Included children who had been rescued or placed in Christian homes

In Western Europe, Jews returned and were sometimes welcomed

In the east life had to be reconstituted

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Displaced Persons camp photos:

Top left – children arrive to a DP campTop right – a group photo at a DP campLeft – readying to leave a DP camp

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

In Poland, 1000 Jews were murdered between 1945-47

Polish antisemitism still aflame

July 4, ’46: pogrom at Kielce46 Jews murdered

B’richa: flight or escape to PalestineOften went to Germany first

Traveled on trains in cattle cars from Poland to Germany!

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Images from the aftermath of the Kielce pogrom

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Immigration to Palestine was still blocked by the British

Illegal immigration was plentiful

55,000 Jews were interned on island of CyprusBritish island; behind barbed wire

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

Nov. 29, ’47: UN vote to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab parts

Many survivors fought and died in 1948 battle for independence

By 1950, approximately 200,000 survivors called Israel “home”

Unit 9: Liberation and the Aftermath

19471948-1967