Document source: World War II, Dachau, Office of Strategic Service - OSS Section, 7th Army Report. This report presents some of the facts and photographs of Dachau to emphasize the type of crimes the SS committed daily. A history, composition, organization, and groupings of prisoners are given for the concentration camp. Another segment addresses the camp, the town, and the townspeople. There is a diary, statements, special case reports, and some information given at the time of the liberation. What was Dachau and its Purposes: The Camp in Dachau was a place of unspeakable horror, a symbol of the atrocities...

(Background) After Pearl Harbor (Dec 7, 1941), the War Department considered how the military could use foreigners and bilingual, first-generation immigrants from German-occupied areas to assist the war effort. The initial assessment concluded that it would be 'un-American' to train foreign troops on US soil, prompting the Norwegian government to refuse a request to recruit Norwegians in the United States for military training in Canada. After a time, however, the War Department decided to set up special units of US citizens from certain ethnic groups for operations in countries occupied by the Axis powers. The following five battalions, established...

(Background) After Pearl Harbor (Dec 7, 1941), the War Department considered how the military could use foreigners and bilingual, first-generation immigrants from German-occupied areas to assist the war effort. The initial assessment concluded that it would be 'un-American' to train foreign troops on US soil, prompting the Norwegian government to refuse a request to recruit Norwegians in the United States for military training in Canada. After a time, however, the War Department decided to set up special units of US citizens from certain ethnic groups for operations in countries occupied by the Axis powers. The following five battalions, established...

HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES 42nd INFANTRY DIVISION MILITARY REPORT CAPTURE OF THE GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMP AT DACHAU May 2, 1945. On April 29, 1945, Gen Henning Linden, ADC of the Rainbow 42-ID, Gen Charles Y. Banfill (8-USAAF), Gen Linden’s aide, Lt William J. Cowling, guards, and drivers were en route to the left flank of the Division in the area of the 222-IR, with the mission of locating Col Downard’s battalion of the 222-IR and pushing them on towards Munich. While passing through the city of Dachau a jeep bearing two newspaper reporters, a Stars and Stripes reporter and a Miss Higgins from the New...

Document Source: Letter and Report filed by 1/Lt William Cowling, US 42nd Infantry Division, on liberating Dachau; photo courtesy of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum/Eric Schwab April 28, 1945 Dachau, Germany Dear Folks, Boy oh boy am I having a heck of a time trying to find time to write. We are really moving. My days have been consisting of getting up between 0630 and 0730 eating, throwing my stuff in a Jeep and taking off. Went to visit the regiments and sometimes the battalions and then head for a new CP. By the time we get into the new CP and set up...

Allied Forces, Supreme Headquarters, G-5, US Group Control Council. Inspection of the German Concentration Camp for political prisoners and located at Buchenwald on the north edge of Weimar. Inspection made by Gen Eric F. Wood, Col Chas H. Ott, and CWO S. M. Dye, on the morning of Apr 16, 1945. PW & DP Division, US Group Control Council APO 742, Annex to Recon Report of Apr 21, 1945. In addition to an American Officer guide, the party was also accompanied by Commandant René l'Hopital, the former ADC to Maréchal Foch, DSM, Officer of the Legion of Honor, MVO, etc;...