104th infantry division concentration camp

The 193 mile segment from the Rhine to the Paderborn had taken only nine days with captured Wehrmacht vehicles and even barnyard carts It is primarily responsible for Combat Service Support training for soldiers entering the Ordnance Corps and other related fields. unbelievable to an American; a job distasteful and sobering; one created by the He lay dust-covered, where he had nearly In one bomb crater lay about twenty Note: The 104th Infantry Division liberated the camp on April 11, not March 27. Their rapidity machine was crumbling, but counter attacks and stubborn pockets of resistance, These bodies showed many signs of beating, starvation This page last updated: 26 October 20141999 National Timberwolf AssociationSite originally developed by Peter Branton [23], During World War II, soldiers of the division were awarded two Medals of Honor, 14 Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, 642 Silver Star Medals, six Legion of Merit medals, 20 Soldier's Medals, 2,797 Bronze Star Medals, and 40 Air Medals. [23] In 1961, the division was relocated to Vancouver Barracks, Washington. By the end of the training, it had turned out 300 new reservists. Nordhausen did not have the huge inmate of Auschwitz. The death toll from the first raid was 450 in the block for tuberculosis sufferers,[11] and the second raid killed about 1,000 people. camp liberation, and seeing the unspeakable atrocities committed by the Nazis. all present. I often wonder if he made it back to life, and if he had ever been After World War II, this division was reorganized primarily as a training division for Reserve forces. Dora. Activated in 1942, the 104th Infantry Division landed in France in September 1944, a few months after the Allied invasion of western Europe on D-Day (June 6, 1944). building, and would I please bring aid to them. They died like flies.(9). [14] A coordinated attack over the Mark River at Standdaarbuiten on 2 November established a bridgehead and the rest of the division crossed the river. In November, the unit was already approaching the German city of Aachen. bedsteads, were grotesquely still, yet hanging tenaciously to life's breath. Some prisoners were able to escape during the bombing and hid in the nearby woods. A new subcamp of Buchenwald Concentration Camp was thus founded: the Arbeitslager Dora (Dora labour camp), as it was officially designated by the SS. A million or more Armenian lives destroyed at the whim of those who ruled the old Turkish Ottoman Empire. These men were dedicated to continuing the spirit of fellowship and teamwork from which We saw those on a bank who had been cut down by machine guns When the first American GI's arrived in the . Washington, DC 20024-2126 Used as an overflow camp for sick and dying inmates from January 1945, numbers rose from a few hundred to over 6000, and the conditions saw up to 100 inmates die every day. One Parisian business told met our eyes. with. [1] The division was the first U.S. Army division to be trained to fight in nighttime conditions. [14] It landed in France on 7 September 1944. View the list of all donors. TIMBERWOLF TRACKS is available through the National Timberwolf Pups Association. The environment of a clean American ambulance. It also served as a reminder of what they were truly fighting for. These men were dedicated to continuing the spirit of fellowship and teamwork from which their war experiences had instilled. of gathering at the national reunions, the final Timberwolf reunion was held in September, 2010 and the difficult decision to end the National Timberwolf Association was [11] The barracks was located near railyards and factories, which were considered military targets;[5] Boelcke-Kaserne had not been marked with a Red Cross symbol. fellow infantrymen teamed up with the 3rd Armored Division beating back the Nazis and gaining a 375 mile penetration deep into the heart of Germany. The 104th Infantry Division during World War II As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they found tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners in deplorable conditions. Rene Steenbeke. Would that it was possible to take the doubters by the hand, back through the years, and point out the tragedy of this minor concentration camp! We found out the full meaning of the words had fallen, gangrened and naked. The width of their front was approximately 8,000 yards. From 1946 until 2008, it was part of the United States Army Reserve. walking into a world apart and returning to bring these shadow-men into the German civilians bury victims under US Army supervision, On 11 April, advance parties of the US 3rd Armored Division entered Nordhausen with little opposition. Boelcke Barracks; also Nordhausen) was a subcamp of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp complex where prisoners were left to die after they became unable to work. [19], The division returned to the United States on 3 July 1945. We pulled three or four feebly struggling living ones from the bottom At the end of the fighting on 7 May 1945 (V-E Day), this division was in central Germany opposite the troops of its allies from the Soviet Army. [29] The 6th Brigade, 104th Division was activated at Aurora, Colorado. It was like something was telling me to keep following the trains; and somehow it gave me the strength to keep going. The 104th repulsed heavy attacks near Medebach and captured Paderborn on 1 April 1945. Nordhausen was a sub-camp of the concentration camp Dora-Mittelbau. From 1943 until 1945, 60,000 prisoners had toiled noticed; I would say she was about seventeen years old. (10) The aftermath of these atrocities were what the Timberwolves were to encounter on April 11, 1945. [2], In October 2007, the division was renamed the 104th Training Division (Leader Training). Deployed during World War II, the division saw almost 200 . 9th Infantry Division . [3][4], On 8 January 1945, the SS-Totenkopfverbnde, which ran the concentration camp system, took over two two-storey garages of the Luftwaffe barracks to use as housing for 6,000 prisoners who were forced to work in the V-2 rocket production in nearby underground factories. [16] Some American newspapers drew an explicit connection between the atrocities at Nordhausen and the rocket production nearby. From where I was standing I could see a hidden tunnel coming out of the side of a mountain. 8 September, 1944.). and the humidity was ninety percent. The US Army immediately had the prisoners transported out of the camp so that they could be treated by physicians. Casualty figures for the 104th Infantry Division, European theater of operations: The nickname of the 104th Infantry Division, "Timberwolf," originated from the division's insignia, a gray timberwolf. They were still alive. We arrived in Amsterdam, Thursday, May 2nd, at Schiphol Airport ready to complete our journey following the footsteps of the 104th Timberwolf Infantry Division as they fought through Europe during WWII in 1944 and 1945. [13], The 104th Infantry Division sailed for the Western Front on 27 August 1944. The 10th Armored Division during World War II. [7] In 1924 it received its shoulder sleeve insignia. Downs, Kenneth T. "Nothing Stopped the Timberwolves." the impact of events. were scattered throughout the buildings and grounds of the large camp and all In addition to burying the dead, the Allied forces attempted to help and comfort the survivors with food, clothing, and medical assistance. Hitler had hoped that the V2s - the "V" standing for "Vergeltung", meaning "Retaliation" in German - hunger and rape for the women and children. This changed after the Angela Fiederman, a staff member at the Mittelbau Dora memorial site stated: Until the spring of 1944 the prisoners lived underground. [18][12][4] American soldiers photographed and filmed the conditions at the camp, which were widely distributed in international media. [5] Daily trains shuttled between Dora and Boelcke-Kaserne, bringing incapacitated prisoners and removing the corpses for cremation at Dora. (3) Camp Mittelbau Dora was established 104th Infantry Division . [8] In 2005, the current Distinctive Unit Insignia was designed under the direction of Major General Terrill K. (TK) Moffett. In October 1944, the SS made Dora-Mittelbau an independent concentration camp with more than 30 subcamps of its own. (and related cases)," United States Army Investigation and Trial Records of War Criminals, National Archives and Records Service. The Timberwolf division made contact with the advancing Soviet armed forces at the end of the month. immediately following the war. National Timberwolf Association, www.104infdiv.org (accessed Oct. 22, 2009). http://www.archives.gov/research/captured-german-records/microfilm/m1079.pdf. [18] After regrouping, it advanced to the east and crossed the Weser River on 8 April, blocking enemy exits from the Harz Mountains. Every so often, the floor would be hosed down in order to clean out the excrement. made. the Americans fought into Nordhausen. December 1, 2009. Galione-Nahas, Mary. On March 1, 2013 the formal organization of the National Timberwolf Association ended and although the formal structure no longer exist, the legacy and traditions Thousands were killed during death marches under horrendous conditions. African American Soldiers during World War II, Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. The soldiers reacted in shock and disbelief to the evidence of Nazi atrocities. The US Army immediately had the prisoners transported out of the camp so that they could be treated by physicians. Moisture seemed to grip everything and everyone. [19], Josten and Kestel were tried at the Auschwitz Trial in Krakw and the Buchenwald Trial at Dachau respectively; both were convicted and executed for crimes committed at other camps. The 104th received its new distinctive unit insignia in 2006. (15) National Timberwolf Association, "Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp," 104th Infantry Division, http://www.104infdiv.org/concamp.htm (accessed Oct. 10, 2009). The 104th Infantry Division formally activated with ceremonies at Camp Adair, Oregon. View the list of all donors. The 3rd Armored Division discovers the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp. Approximately 60,000 prisoners from 21 nations (mostly Russians, Poles, and French) passed through Mittelbau Dora. In one corner was a pile of arms and legs. In the June-July east. period they were coming down by the hundreds on London and killed more than General Allen planned to employ all three of his regiments at the same time, shoulder to shoulder. US authorities also ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead. The Germans had been using the underground factory to build V2 rockets. send e-mail comments or queries to the Webmaster: [5] Most of the prisoner functionaries were German "green triangle" prisoners (convicted criminals) whose beatings and cruelty made the situation even worse.[7][14]. (Accessed Oct. 22, 2009). me he had been kicked and beaten repeatedly. [26] Meanwhile, the 3rd Brigade, 104th Division,[27] as well as the 4th Brigade, 104th Division both activated at Fort Lawton, Washington. . [14] During this time, the division was reassigned to VII Corps of the U.S. 1st Army, also part of the Twelfth Army Group. 5,000 corpses among the 6,000 inmates in various stages of decay. [18] The sector to the Mulde River was cleared by 21 April, and after vigorous patrolling, contacted the Red Army at Pretzsch on 26 April. I learned that he We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. [5] The 207th and 208th Infantry Brigades did not reactivate as part of an army-wide elimination of brigade commands within its divisions. When US forces liberated Dora-Mittelbau in April 1945, only a few prisoners were still in the camp. There were lots of accidents, people buried alive under rocks and rubble. Massacre was the word here, knives and bullets for the males, desert death marches, [4][7], Beginning in late January, many Jewish prisoners in poor physical condition arrived at the Mittelbau-Dora complex from Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen. he had been in camp only three months. 5,000 people and injured 35,000 more. The SS was in charge of the There were no toilets and there was no water. scene. The Timberwolves were then assigned to Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group under the British I Corps, within the First Canadian Army, along with the U.S. 7th Armored Division, in order to clear out the Scheldt Estuary and open the port of Antwerp. Jules Helfner's handwritten note on reverse of photo from Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. emotional impact was heavy on all who were witness to these incidents but webmaster@104infdiv.org, Please But my job crowded out She lay there where she They are Willy F. James Jr., for scouting German positions while being pinned down by machine gun fire,[39] and Cecil H. Bolton, who led a company of men on the attack despite wounds from a mortar shell. It was designed by Charles Livingston Bull, artist and authority on wild life, and represents the northwest. The soldiers reacted in shock and disbelief to the evidence of Nazi atrocities. [3][4] From 1942, parts of the barracks complex had housed forced laborers for Mabag, a company involved in arms production. 'monsieur' very softly, and at my feet, lying as if dead, was a cadaverous man; At 1000 hours, the 684 officers and 1,435 enlisted men, then in the division, marched to the central parade grounds, and stood at attention before the speakers platform - - As the first notes of a bugle sounded the Division Commander's party reached the . Nordhausen was liberated by the 104th US Infantry Division on April 12th, 1945. 3rd Armored history - permanently engraved in the hearts and memories of The former soldiers of the 104th Infantry Division, bound together by common memories Tags: liberating units US Army. [8] The division was reorganized specifically as a training division in 1959. "secret weapon" of Hitler, launched from Holland, first hit London on Aprril 27, 1945 - June 11, 1958, http://www.archives.gov/research/captured-german-records/microfilm/m1079.pdf. In addition to burying the dead, the Allied forces attempted to help and comfort the survivors with food, clothing, and medical assistance. penetration deep into the heart of central Germany. His dozen or so photos from Mittelbau-Dora show rows of emaciated corpses in brutal clarity (inexplicably,. With the Allies firmly on the north side of the Mark River, German resistance collapsed. known?'. While the U.S. 7th Armored Division was assigned static duty holding the right flank of the gains made during the failed Market Garden operation, the 104th Infantry Division was to participate in the First Canadian Army's taking of the Scheldt. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky also served with the 104th during WW2. An article written by Kenneth T. Downs entitled "Nothing Stopped the Timberwolves" was featured in The Saturday Evening similar background, on the eye witnessed horror stories of an even more terrible evidence of atrocity. The US Army forced about two thousand Germans from Nordhausen to bury the corpses in mass graves, a process which took until 16 April. Sobered and drained each of us eventually left the area, in the allowed to leave the camp and when they became too weak to work, they were In closing, a quote from Leon Karalokian of the 104th Signal Nordhausen, home of the Mittelbau-Dora Despite their efforts, many survivors died shortly after liberation. patients, set up improvised hospital wards, and feed many mouths without help. 104th Infantry and their discovery of the Mittelbau Dora labor camp; the camp in which prisoners were forced to work on a top secret weapon: the world's first ballistic missile. and combat-wise medics, and we thought there was nothing left in the books we Would that it was possible to take the doubters by the hand, back supplementing more conventional means of transport for the relentless push East. When I answered, he brightened and related that a group After fierce fighting in the Ruhr pocket, it advanced into central Germany and took the Prussian university town of Halle on April 19. sanguine genocide in Turkey three decades earlier. [15] By 7 November, the fighting in the Netherlands cost the Timberwolves 1,426 casualties, including 313 killed and 103 missing. Time dulls effective, the world's first medium-range ballistic missile. emaciated frames. There are those who now maintain Hitler's holocaust never As a result of the actions of the 104th and their Allied counterparts, the Scheldt Estuary was cleared. [18] Eschweiler fell on 21 November and the enemy was cleared from the area west of the Inde River, including Inden by 2 December 1944. Stories . trial commenced on August 7, 1947 at the Dachau internment camp against those Last edited on 28 November 2022, at 20:14, Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp complex, "Creating a Memory for the German Rocket Program for the Cold War", Color footage of corpses found after liberation, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boelcke-Kaserne_concentration_camp&oldid=1124413574, This page was last edited on 28 November 2022, at 20:14. While under American command on 16 November 1944, the division went on another offensive in support of Operation Queen, taking Stolberg and pushing on against heavy resistance. of maneuver and bold night attacks and teamwork were outstanding and held casualties down to 1445 killed, 4801 wounded, 111 missing in action, for a total of 6357.(14). Note: The 104th . The (11) The U.S. Army rushed medical personnel, food, and equipment to the camp. In November, the unit was already approaching the German city of Aachen. The "Timberwolf" division advanced into Belgium by the end of the following month. conventional means of military transport for the relentless push to the 104th Division may refer to: 104th Division (1st Formation) (People's Republic of China), 1948-1951 104th Division (2nd Formation) (People's Republic of China), 1951-1955 104th Jger Division (Wehrmacht), a unit of the German Army 104th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) 104th Infantry Division "Mantova", a unit of the Italian Army 406420, Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953), "The Institute of Heraldry: 104th Division", "Archives West: Robert Rust photograph collection, 19301950", "U.S. Army Reserve > Commands > Functional > 108th TNG CMD", "Obituary: Leo Hoegh, 92, Civil Defense Chief for Eisenhower", "Medal of Honor Recipients World War II (AF)", "Medal of Honor Recipients World War II (GL)", United States Army Center of Military History, 104th Infantry Division Command Personnel, Timberwolves: The Story of the 104th Infantry Division. There are those who now maintain that Hitler's holocaust serve as a silent witness to the evil committed at Camp Mittelbau Dora. This terror weapon of little military Aftermath of the RAF bombing raid of 3 and 4 April 1945 that destroyed the Boelcke-Kaserne (Boelcke Barracks) located in the south-east of the town of Nordhausen and killed around 1,300 inmates. (10) Mary Galione-Nahas, The Journey of Private Galione: How America Became a Super Power, (Washington: Pleasant Word Press 2004). But you know, when you are young, you can take an awful lot. The 104th Infantry Division was first constituted on 24 June 1921 as the 104th Division, before being organized and activated in October of that year in Salt Lake City, Utah. Murphy, Richard. abandoned to die and their bodies burned at the crematorium within the grounds. I was exhausted because we had just gotten in from all those miles. [1] The division was assigned to III Corps of the Ninth United States Army, part of the Twelfth United States Army Group. It became Main telephone: 202.488.0400 Sobered and drained each of us eventually left the area, in the words of a poet "(8) Many prisoners perished due to the [5][b] The SS evacuated from the barracks after the raid, leaving the dead and leaving dying prisoners to fend for themselves. 104thInfantry Division. knives and bullets for the males, desert death marches, hunger and rape for the [16] The American soldiers were outraged; one wrote, "No written word can properly convey the atmosphere of such a charnel house, the unbearable stench of decomposing bodies, the sight of live human beings lying cheek by jowl with the ten-day dead"[15] A 15 April report describes the camp as "the most horrifying example of Nazi terrorism imaginable". [20], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}512930.1N 104831.0E / 51.491694N 10.808611E / 51.491694; 10.808611, "Nordhausen concentration camp" redirects here. survivors, and bury the dead. of the Timberwolves will endure. spared in the Division were rushed to the scene to give medical aid. The division was instead centered on three infantry regiments; the 413th,[9] the 414th,[9] and 415th Infantry Regiments. attention and salute us as tears slowly trickled down his cheeks. Concentration Camp, was first viewed as just another spot on the map, but The 5,000 victims here, dead and alive, were In addition, actor James G. Snitzer was a member of the 104th and died in combat in 1945. The Yet in a short period of two days I and many others of the Sergeant Ragene Farris of the 329th Medical Their striped coats and prison numbers hung to their frames as a But when I started to turn around, something empowering came over me. [23], In 1967, the division was reorganized. The Timberwolves knew they were there to help liberate the world from tyranny, of course, but personal hatred usually was not present. hospitalization, and feeding, unparalleled to any day of combat. Info@104InfDiv.org. We went to the stairs and Speed would save lives, so we fell into a day of evacuation, The barracks was a subcamp of the Mittelbau-Dora Nazi concentration camp. The media of the time described combat in far less gruesome detail.

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