TIL that after the US freed Buchenwald in April 1945, the USSR took over because the concentration camp was in eastern Germany. The Soviets immediately turned it into "NKVD Special Camp No. 2". As part of the Gulag and run by the Russian secret police, 25% of prisoners died before closure in 1950. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucβ¦
TIL of Mikhail Devyataev, a Soviet fighter pilot who in Feb 1945 escaped a Nazi concentration camp near PeenemΓΌnde with nine other POWs by taking over the commandant's He 111 bomber. The NKVD didn't believe his story and classified him as a criminal, but in 1957 he became a Hero of the Soviet Union. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikβ¦
TIL that after Nazi Germany's defeat, ten NKVD-run "special camps" subordinate to the Gulag were set up in the Soviet Occupation Zone of post-war Germany. These "special camps" were former Stalags, prisons, or Nazi concentration camps such as Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulβ¦
Soviet soldiers pose atop the National Kaiser Wilhelm Monument. Berlin, Germany. 1945. The monument would be demolished in 1950.
A concentration camp victim liberated by the U.S. Army in Buchenwald camp in Germany identifies SS guard who were brutally beating prisoners. April 14, 1945
What is this commercial vehicle from circa 1945β1950 in Western Germany?
''Visiting the concentration camp in Germany: -- and that's what remained of Germany ---'' // Switzerland // May 3, 1945 // artist: Gregor Rabinovitch (''Nebelspalter'' magazine) // Heinrich Himmler is depicted as a devil with female breasts
16th of April 1945 - Prisoners that were held in Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar in Germany, photographed after they were liberated by the US Troops of the 80th Division.
19 Nov 1944: 1030 Polish prisoners arrived at the NKVD Ostashkov Special Camp in Tver ww2db.com/facility/Ostashβ¦
Thousands of wedding rings were found by U.S. 1st Army troops in a cave adjoining the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany; 1945. The rings had been taken from the victims in order to salvage the gold.
An American prisoner of war liberated from a German prison camp in Limburg, Germany, 1945. [880x773]
The trial against a 100-year-old former SS camp guard begins in Germany. The man is accused of collaborating in the murders of 3,518 people at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1942 and 1945, when he was employed as a standing guard in the watchtower. reuters.com/world/europe/β¦
My great uncle(right) around 1941. He was drafted 1945 at the age of 17 and died December 1945 in a sowjet prison camp. A fellow prisoner wrote a letter to my great grandparents in the 1950s when he finally got home and he wrote that only 50 men out of 2000 survived the imprisonment. War sucks.
An American prisoner of war liberated from a German prison camp in Limburg, Germany, 1945.
This is a sporter made in the 1950s by E K Arzt of Weilheim, Germany. The three hole receiver was made by Gustloff Werke in 1945. The quick release Kahles scope is attached to a long side rail (LSR) mount. Caliber: .30-06. It's been in the family for several generations. reddit.com/gallery/k19snq
Jewish prisoners of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, on a transport to Theresienstadt north of Prague, moments after they were liberated by the US forces on April 1945. Photo taken by Major Clarence Benjamin [1920x2304]
19 Nov 1944: 1030 Polish prisoners arrived at the NKVD Ostashkov Special Camp in Tver ww2db.com/facility/Ostashβ¦
19 Nov 1944: 1030 Polish prisoners arrived at the NKVD Ostashkov Special Camp in Tver ww2db.com/facility/Ostashβ¦
19 Nov 1944: 1030 Polish prisoners arrived at the NKVD Ostashkov Special Camp in Tver ww2db.com/facility/Ostashβ¦
TIL In 1945 Roman Catholic nun Elise Rivet volunteered to go to the gas chamber in place of a mother at the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Less than two months before Germany surrendered she was killed at the age of 55. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3β¦
Members of US 89th Infantry Division in training, Camp Carson, Colorado, United States, 1943. The 89th ID landed in France in January 1945 and fought in Germany until the end of the war. reddit.com/gallery/njars2
Russian survivor liberated 14.04.1945 by U.S. Army in Buchenwald camp in Germany identified a former guard from SS who was brutally beating prisoners and was probably involved in the crime of the Holocaust. Taken on 5 June 1945. @lzcolorizations
Family letter detailing the conditions and liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp in Bavaria, Germany, May 1945
This post is in relation to a post discussing the Holocaust on another subreddit, talking about the teaching of the events which took place during the Second World War. When I was younger and first learning about the Holocaust in school, my mom showed me the following letter, which had been written by my cousin and detailed his experience in Germany.
First hand accounts and knowledge of such events can be easily lost and rarely accounted for in history textbooks, so my hope is that this post can help to expand other's knowledge and understanding of what happened in and around the concentration camps setup and operated by the third Reich.
Mauthausen was liberated on May 5/6, 1945 by elements of the 11th Armored Division. One standout fact about the liberation of this camp is that the Spanish photographer Francesc Boix was imprisoned there, and managed to smuggle out thousands of negative photographs, which were later used during the Nuremberg trials as evidence.
I myself am a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, but I each time I read this letter, I truly cannot comprehend what must have been going through his mind just trying to process the horror of the camps.
Hopefully this letter adds some perspective for those who read it, as it did for me.
I know this is quite a serious and somber topic, but I would like to highlight a bit of brevity from the letter itself; my cousin was a field grade officer, in a Jeep full of Colonels, and to no one's surprise, they got lost and ended up encountering the furthest advanced Russian forces before they found their way again.
http://imgur.com/gallery/NMT7emR
12 May 1945: [Photo] Prisoner of war camp in Sinzig, Germany ww2db.com/image.php?imageβ¦
After his liberation from a camp, a former Russian slave laborer swings his suitcase at a German policeman; Bonn Germany, March 1945.
Russian survivor liberated by the U.S. Army in Buchenwald camp in Germany identified a former guard who were brutally beating prisoners. April 14, 1945. Colorized
Prisoners in the WΓΆbbelin concentration camp, Ludwigslust, Germany, May 4th 1945.
1st Lieutenant Glenn D. Schultz of the 53rd Fighter Group, 63rd Fighter Squadron, poses for a photo by his P-47 after shooting down 3 Bf-109s over Germany, January 11th, 1945. This would make his over all count up to 8 victories. He would be killed over the skies of Korea in 1950. I colorized this.
24 Apr 1945: US First Army liberated Dachau Concentration Camp in southern Germany. ww2db.com/battle_spec.phpβ¦
@AP: RT @APEntertainment: In "Colette," the #Oscars best documentary short subject winner from director Anthony Giacchino, Colette Marin-Catherine sets foot in Germany for the first time since before World War II to visit the concentration camp where her brother died in 1945. https://t.co/KY0AmIhqcg mobile.twitter.com/AP/staβ¦
15 Apr 1945: British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany. ww2db.com/battle_spec.phpβ¦
Wedding bands that were removed from Holocaust victims before their execution at Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimar, Germany, 1945.
TIL After WW2 for 5 more years, Buchenwald was the site of NKVD special camp, where the Soviet secret police imprisoned former Nazis and anti-communist dissidents. According to Soviet records, 28,455 people were detained, 7,113 of whom died. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucβ¦
Russian survivor liberated by the U.S. Army in Buchenwald camp in Germany identified a former guard who were brutally beating prisoners [April 14, 1945]
Jewish prisoners of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, on a transport to Theresienstadt north of Prague, moments after they were liberated by the US forces on April 1945. Photo taken by Major Clarence Benjamin [1920x2304]
My grandfather on a motorcycle he stole from a Nazi, weeks after American troops liberated him from a concentration camp in Landsberg, Germany (May 1945). He had spent 4 years in concentration camps around Poland and Germany.
December 18, 1892 - Mykola Kulish, a Ukrainian writer, was born. In 1937, by order of a special troika of the NKVD, he was shot in the Sandarmokh tract.
Fun fact: Rodzaevsky's portrait is based of his mugshot taken by the NKVD after he was arrested in 1945.
https://preview.redd.it/nxmbasvwdhq51.png?width=192&format=png&auto=webp&s=d38aef8ac11b04158b338183b0c67e8f756de3bf
https://preview.redd.it/il7l9paxdhq51.jpg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=807bd06db470f54507175c0031a08424c3ec2943
Jewish prisoners of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, on a transport to Theresienstadt north of Prague, moments after they were liberated by the US forces on April 1945.
Food is distributed to inmates at a camp for displaced persons in Germany at the end of WW2. 1945. (1060 x 693).
US Corporal Larry Matinsk giving cigarettes to prisoners in Allach concentration camp, April 30, 1945, Germany
