quiz time, where was this picture taken?

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

OK time for a quiz. Do you know where these two photos were taken?
Let's see if anyone can quess!

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

OK time for a quiz. Do you know where these two photos were taken?
Let's see if anyone can quess!

photo # 2, sorry for the poor quality, but they have been around for awhile

[JaimeH]

photo # 2, sorry for the poor quality, but they have been around for awhile

Dachau Concentration Camp?

[Brad Haner]

Dachau Concentration Camp?

JamieH,that was my first thought to.However,in a conversation I had with General Sparks a few years ago.He claimed there were not any regular SS men left at the camp.These chaps also looked a bit young to be camp guards at the end of the war.So I ruled out Dachau.I am following this to get the answer.

[JaimeH]

JamieH,that was my first thought to.However,in a conversation I had with General Sparks a few years ago.He claimed there were not any regular SS men left at the camp.These chaps also looked a bit young to be camp guards at the end of the war.So I ruled out Dachau.I am following this to get the answer.

From some thing I've read, most of the SS men who were shot at Dachau had just arrived at the SS training camp next to the KZ from the Eastern front. The guards and camp commander had fled the day before.

[Greg Sebring]

It would be really hard to tell what the location is. My Dad said his outfit, the 82nd Airborne, never took any SS prisoners alive.....He added it was sort of an unwritten rule everyone followed.

[JaimeH]

OK, I give up, where is it?

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

OK, I give up, where is it?

Hi Guys,
Sorry to keep you hanging, my computer crashed and I have been working all day to get back online.
Well it looks like Jamie wins the kupie doll. Dachau it is! I got these pictures about 15 years ago from the pilot who took them during the war. He flew VIP's into Dachau shortly after liberation to witness what went on there. He took about 30 photos, all of piles of dead SS men who were apparently executed. Unfortunately his children took them all to school and gave them away. These were the only two that survived.
I have always had an interest in Dachau after talking to my wifes uncle who was like the third or fourth man in the gate. He was a radioman in the lead squad who first entered into the camp.
I had a chance to go to a 45th division re-union a number of years ago.I got to meet Felix Sparks who was the commanding general of the 45th during the war. My wifes uncle also came as well as the author of the book (hour of the avenger). I have neat photo of all of us somewhere.
I gave a copy of these photos to the author of the dachau book. He was very thankfull and knew immediately where in the camp that they were taken.He referred to the first photo as the coal bin massacre, where about 30 SS men were killed. The second photo was near the camp entrance where the majority of the SS men were killed. Some you can see have been fished out of the moat that surrounded the camp. There clothes are still wet. Apparently they were thrown into the moat by the inmates after they were beaten to death.
The author was very glad to have these photos as they are indeed very rare. All of the pictures taken were confiscated by general Patton and this entire atrocity was then covered up.
To this day very few people (except Jamie) probably do not know what really happened in Dachau. Indeed these are very rare photos, as very few survived the war. I hope some of us find them at least interesting. Jeff A

[Brad Haner]

Jeff,very informative photos then.I will disagree with one of your statements tho.General Sparkes was a Col. at the time if memory serves me right.Jeff have you had the chance to read General Sparks book?He covers the whole event...as he saw it....and discusses Gen Patton's "pencil whipping" of the whole affair.


Brad

[JaimeH]

Check this site out -

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Dachau...ersKilled.html

[Joseph D'Errico]

Very interesting pics. about a part of history tucked under the rug.

Best,
JD

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

Check this site out -

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Dachau...ersKilled.html

Neat site, very informative. Another memory that comes to mind after interviewing my wifes uncle is that just prior to the 45th div entering Dachau they were involved in heavy fighting with an SS unit near the town of Aschaffenburg. During the fighting several members of the 45th div were captured and executed by the SS.
The enraged surviviors then entered Dachau shortly thereafter with this thought on there minds. My wifes uncle vividly remembered trying to get a few SS men to surrender. They pretty much must have known their fate because he said many refused and were immediately shot.
My wifes uncle drank excessively after the war and up untill just a year ago. His family now knows why!