Dachau 1945
Felix A. Cizewski's story
45th Division News
SS Gate Photo
"The world goes on being awash in wickedness, arrogance,
mediocrity, but Antelme showed us that the business of living
may be accomplished with goodness, with modesty, and with
nobility."
Robert Antelme was a French writer and resistance
worker. He was one of the over 30,000 inmates liberated from
Dachau by the 45th Division. He died in 1990. From Edgar
Morin, "Homage to "Robert Antelme," Le Monde, November
2, 1990.
From Alex
Kershaw's The Liberator.
As a member of the 45th Infantry Division at
the time of the liberation of Dachau, Felix A. Cizewski is
recognized as a liberator.
However, on behalf of my late father whom I am sure would
agree with this qualification, the hard work of liberation was
done by the combat troops of the 45th who defeated the SS
guards who resisted liberation.
Felix was a member of the 45th Signal Company and was providing
communications support for he combat troops who were fighting to
liberate Dachau.
However, the 45th Signal Company arrived at Dachau the day after
liberation.
The combat troops appreciated the support from troops such as my
father. One shared that it was the luck of the draw who ended up
in the combat units and who was assigned to support units such
as my father.
The 45th Infantry Division is recognized as a liberating unit of
Dachau by the
United
States
Holocaust
Memorial Museum and the
U. S. Army Center of Military
History.
The first photos were taken by by
T/4 Arland B. Musser, 163rd Signal
Photographic Company, Seventh Army. Motion pictures were taken
by Special Motion Picture Coverage Unit of the Signal Corps.
PFC Felix A. Cizewski was in the
45th
Signal
Company at that time.
Where was the 45th Signal Company during the
first 48 hours of liberation?
On the day of liberation, April 29th, the 45th
Signal Company was moving from Schrobenhausen about 39
miles (63 kilometers) by road north of Dachau to
Haimhausen, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) by road
northeast of Dachau.
On April 30th, the day after liberation, the 45th
Signal Company moved to Feldmoching, Munich, about 7 1/2
miles (12 kilometers) by road southeast of Dachau. |
"Immediately after Dachau's liberation, U.S. Army authorities and
other Allied representatives began treating the sick prisoners,
implementing health and sanitary measures to curb the typhus
epidemic, and bringing in tons of food to feed the starving
prisoners. The local townspeople were brought in to give the dead
prisoners a proper burial." From
United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia's entry The 45th Infantry Division.
Felix would have had the
opportunity to visit Dachau.
As he was fluent in Polish,
he would have been able to converse with inmates.1
The 45th Division was
stationed on occupation duty in Munich area near Dachau from May until late July, 1945.
After VE Day, May 8, 1945:
General Patton became military governor of Bavaria,
which included Dachau
and the 45th Division,
and ordered that no charges be brought against the GIs involved
in the execution of guards
Felix never spoke of
Dachau before
his
death
in 2004. Dachau meant something to him as he kept a copy of the
45th Division News with the
report of the liberation and a photo of the
gate to the SS
camp.
1 In
The
Liberator, Alex Kershaw reports 9,082 of the surviving
inmates were Slavic Polish. He does not specify the citizenship of
the 2, 539 surviving Jewish inmates some of whom were also Polish
citizens.
In
Forgotten
Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation 1939-1944
author Richard C. Lukas reports as many as 8,900 Poles among the
liberated survivors of Dachau.
Lukas sites as his source: Jan Domagala,
Ci Ktorzy Przeszli Przeszli
Przez Dachau (Duchowni w Dachau). Warsaw: Pax, 1957.