One of the regular readers of this blog recommended a new book, written by Michael Hirsh, which you can download here. The cover of the book has a photo of the Allach sub-camp of Dachau which was liberated by American troops on April 30, 1945, the next day after the main Dachau camp was liberated.
The liberation of Allach, a sub-camp of the Dachau concentration camp
Allach was near the city of Munich; it was located approximately 10 miles from the main Dachau camp. According to Marcus J. Smith, who wrote “Dachau: The Harrowing of Hell,” the Allach camp was divided into two enclosures, one for 3,000 Jewish inmates and the other for 6,000 non-Jewish prisoners. Smith was a doctor in the US military, assigned to take over the care of the prisoners after the liberation. He wrote that the typhus epidemic had not reached Allach until April 22, 1945, about a week before the camp was liberated.
At the main Dachau camp, prisoners were dying at the rate of 400 a day during the typhus epidemic which started there way back in December 1944. The prisoners at Allach were still relatively healthy, as the photo below shows.
Survivors of the Allach sub-camp of Dachau (Click on the Photo to enlarge)
Why did the author of the book entitled “The Liberators — America’s Witnesses to the Holocaust” choose a photo of Allach for the cover? There were virtually no atrocities committed there and the survivors were in relatively good condition. There were no “bodies stacked like cordwood.” The only reason that I can think of is that the photo shows an American flag flying and a person of color in the foreground. (more…)
