During the final days of the Nazi Reich, how did the prisoners of concentration camps take revenge on the SS guards? 

In a minute everything was different when the Allies burst in the camps. The guards that were in a position to do everything were now cornered and the prisoners that they had beaten and starved over the years were only willing to strike back. There was no mercy in the schedule.

In Buchenwald a Soviet prisoner, who was so weak and thin, pointed literally towards an SS guard. Such a mere fact was all that it was necessary to pass sentence on the guard. And the roles were reversed and that was that.

Things were even tougher at Dachau. The American soldiers witnessed the atrocities of the camp and bought a blind eye to even revenge by the prisoners. Even a Jewish American officer would pull out two hiding SS and offered them to the prisoners. Food, beds, showers and none of that counted. All that they wanted was a payback, and they received it.

Most of the guards attempted to go underground following the end of the war. They swopped their uniforms and names praying that nobody would detect. Survivors could not forget their faces. Amon Goth was a sadistic camp leader who attempted to pose as an ordinary soldier. That did not work. He was identified by prisoners and arrested, charged and hanged.

Thereafter there was nothing doubtful--if you had the skull badge on you were done for.

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