When American soldiers entered Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945, they were confronted with the sight of railroad cars filled with thousands of rotting corpses, and an atmosphere of sheer pandemonium.
An SS officer, Heinrich Wicker, attempted to make an official surrender. No one was interested. Starving prisoners armed themselves with iron bars, stones, and bits of wood torn from the ground to hunt down the guards who had tormented them for so long.
They quickly found one guard, Heinrich Skintzyk, almost instantly.
A group of survivors jumped him, beat him into the dirt with heavy pieces of wood, and stomped on his body until he was dead.
American soldiers were so disgusted and horrified by the number of dead bodies that many turned their heads away. Some official military records show a few GIs passed loaded rifles to victims of the Nazis so they could get a shot at the murderers themselves.
The SS were not the only ones getting targeted. Survivors hunted down the Kapos—prisoner overseers responsible for acts of torture and killings in order to get extra food supplies. At the Mauthausen camp, a group of Jews tied up one particularly violent Kapo and murdered him in the basement of a dark barrack before sunset
U.S. officers eventually intervened to stop any further killings to provide medical assistance to the wounded and to take surviving perpetrators to court, But for a short time, there was no law in Dachau. I’d appreciate an upvote if you find it helpful and informative.
Comments
Post a Comment