20th
            Armored Division Shoulder Patch20th Armored DivisionCompany D
            27th Tank Battalion Guidon

:LEFT to RIGHT: 20th Armored Division Shoulder Patch; Company D, 27th Tank Battalion Guidon

Liberation of Dachau

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)


Many family members of  20th Armored Division Veterans and others have questions about the Division's liberation of the main Dachau concentration camp and its subcamps.

Here, FYI, are answers to some of the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

1. My relative said he liberated Dachau. Was he there?

The photos and histories of Dachau on April 29, 1945 suggest that a few hundred soldiers from elements of ten units of the three co-liberating divisions were at Dachau on April 29, 1945.

We have been unable to determine how many soldiers of those were soldiers of the five 20th AD units that were at Dachau our research has identified that were at Dachau on April 29, 1945:

In the documents in which the U.S. Army Center of Military History recognized the 20th AD as a co-liberating division of Dachau, the 20th AD units were identified:
April 29, 1945: Soldiers of the 27th Tank Battalion at Dachau

C
lick on photo for larger format
SS Barracks
April 29, 1945: Soldiers of the 27th Tanks Battalion at the SS barracks at the SS training facility adjacent to the concentration camp

Misidentified in handwriting as "Hitler office" in Munich.
CMH docuoment
Those units may be described as active participants in the liberation of Dachau.

The details of their service are being researched
.

However, based on the histories of liberation, informed speculation is that the most likely service
D Company and Assault Gun Platoon, 27th Tank Battalion performed was support and relief for Companies A, 1st Battalion, and Company F, 2nd Battalion, 222nd Infantry Regiment (the unit to which it was attached), 42nd ID and providing security for the concentration camp until the D Company and Assault Gun Platoon, 27th Tank Battalion moved on to Munich probably later on April 29, 1945.

D Company and Assault Gun Platoon, 27th Tank Battalion, 20th AD is not mentioned in the 42nd ID's official history. We urge research into 222nd IR, 42md ID documents for information about the D Company and Assault Gun Platoon, 27th Tank Battalion at Dachau on April 29, 1945.(More details about the 42nd ID units at Dachau are found in Flint Whitlock's history of the 45th ID than in the 42nd ID's official history.)

We have been unable to determine the time the soldiers of the units of the three co-liberating divisions who took part in the initial stages of liberation were relieved by other units.

Therefore we do not know how long D Company and Assault Gun Platoon, 27th Tank Battalion was at Dachau on April 29, 1945.

Also On April 29, 1945, soldiers from some units of the 20th AD en route to Munich stopped and entered the concentration camp.

While those soldiers did not participate in the liberation of Dachau, they were at the Dachau on the day of liberation and may be described as witnesses to the April 29, 1945 liberation.

Entering Dachau on April 29 and 30, 1945 is the CMH definition of liberation.

Units that have been identified through letters, official documents, and photos are:
The CMH does not cite those units in the documents that recognize the 20th AD as a co-liberating division of Dachau. The CMH documentation may be viewed as minimal and incomplete.

On a spreadsheet as a file the 20th Armored Division in World War II Facebook Group (insert link) is listing all units mentioned in official documents as being at Dachau on April 29, 1945 and correlates them with soldier's letters and oral histories.


At this time X 20th AD units that are identified in official documents that passed through the town of Dachau on April 29, 1945 en route to Munich.

That will facilitate the correlation of oral histories, letters, and diaries from soldiers of those units who report they stopped and briefly entered the main Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945.
April 29, 1945: Soldiers of the 20th AD at Dachau
Click on photo for larger format
20th AD Soldiers at Dachau
20th AD soldiers at Dachau. Site tentatively identified as the buildings in the SS facility near the train cars with the bodies of Buchenwald inmates.

20th AD shoulder patch circled in ORANGE

Photos by the late George J. Stuber, Headquarters Company, 220th Armored Engineers Battalion
Click on photo for larger format
20th AD Soldiers at Dachau
20th AD soldiers at the boxcars with deceased Buchenwald inmates.

20th AD shouter patch circled in ORANGE

Photos by the late George J. Stuber, Headquarters Company, 220th Armored Engineers Battalion




2.  Could soldiers accounts of entering Dachau on April 29, 1945 while en route to Munich have been misunderstood or misinterpreted as active participation in liberation?

Yes.

Soldiers made good faith reports in their letters, diaries, and oral histories of their brief entrance into Dachau while en route to Dachau without making claims to have actively participated in its liberation.

Others may have misinterpreted or misunderstood that as a claim to have actively participate in the liberation.

Others may have misrepresented that as a claim to
to have actively participate in the liberation.

By CMH definition, that the soldier entered a camp within a defined time frame also earned that soldier's division recognition as a liberating division.

The CMH does not specify what actions qualify a division to be recognized as liberating division, only that soldiers or units of the division entered a camp within a designated 48 hour period.
 If they

3. Are any other units of the 20th Armored Division recognized co-liberating units of Dachau?
The 414th Armored Field Artillery Battalion was detached to the 42nd Infantry Division from April 24 to May 1, 1945.

As defined by the CMH, the 42nd's recognition as a co-liberating unit extends to all attached units on April 29, 1945.

Therefore as an attached unit of the 42nd Infantry Division of April 29, 1945, the 414th Armored Field Artillery Battalion is a recognized unit of a co-liberating division of Dachau as is every other unit and attached unit of the 42nd ID on April 29, 1945.

A unit or attached unit of a recognized liberating division does not need to have been in the liberated camp during the CMH defined 48 hours of liberation to be included in the division's recognition as a liberating division.

At this time we have not research the 414th location on April 29, 1945.

4. Where was the rest of the 20th AD on April 29, 1945

On April 29, 1945, most of the other 14,000 soldiers of the 20th AD and attached units were en route to Munich.

5. Did soldiers of the 20th AD have other opportunities to be at Dachau?

After the end of the war while on occupation duty, soldiers of the 20th AD were able to visit the main Dachau concentration camp after the war as GI tourists.

6. What does the recognition of the 20th AD as a co-liberating unit of Dachau mean?

Because D Company and Assault Gun Platoon, 27th Tank Battalion were attached to the 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division and at Dachau on April 29, 1945,  all of the 14,000 soldiers who on April 29, 1945 members of the 20th AD are recognized as members of a liberating division of Dachau.

The 414th Armored Field Artillery Battalion is additionally recognized as a unit of the liberating 42nd Infantry Division because it was attached to the co-liberating 42nd ID on April 29, 1945 as are all units of the 42nd Division.

One way to view that recognition is that D Company and Assault Gun Platoon, 27th Tank Battalion were the point of the liberating spear of Dachau and the other soldiers and units of the 20th AD were the shaft of the liberating spear.

The 14th Armored Field Artillery Battalion was part of the shaft of 42nd ID's spear with the D Company and Assault Gun Platoon, 27th Tank Battalion, 20th AD and the units of the 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry the tip of the liberating spear.

7. Did 20th AD soldiers find buildings stacked with thousands of bodies?


Yes.

Stacks of bodies are among the sites witnessed and photographed by soldiers of the 20th Armored Division who briefly stopped and entered the concentration camp while en route to Munich.

8. Did three tanks a wrecker entering the camp and observe bodies in train cars?

The that appears to be an account of soldiers of the 20th Armored Division who briefly stopped and entered the concentration camp while en route to Munich and saw the train cars with the bodies of the Buchenwald inmates.

9. Did soldiers of the 20th ID observe inmates removing bodies from the train cars and dumping them into a pit?

That is not consistent with Army and other reports.

Prior to liberation, order in the camp had broken down, many of the SS guards had fled, the deceased inmates inside the camp were no longer being taken to the mass grave at Leitenberg, and the inmates were refusing to process the recently arrived bodies in the boxcars.

***10. Did 20th AD soldiers find SS guards in closets with their throats cut by inmates?

Professor Jurgen Zarusky are estimates that liberated inmates killed up to fifty SS guards and SS collaborators during the first 24 hours of liberation.

Professor Zarusky does not report inmates cutting throats of guards prior to liberation and hiding the bodies in closets.

Soldiers of the co-liberating divisions do not report finding bodies of SS soldiers or SS collaborators with throat cuts in closets.


11. Did 20th AD soldiers find a flagpole with a Nazi flag with inmates dead of gunshot wounds around the base?

None of the official reports of the three co-liberating divisions, the Seventh Army Office of Strategic Service Section Report, of the histories of the liberation of Dachau report inmates dead of gunshot wounds around the base of a flagpole.

12. Did 20th AD soldiers shoot off the lock of a gate with small arms or a 75-mm gun or cut off a chain and lock on a gate?

All reports are that the Dachau concentration camp's main gate was opened without force, likely by soldiers of the 42nd Infantry Division, with accompanying war correspondents and in the presence of SS guards, SS officers, and members of the International Red Cross.

The concentration was intact without physical evidence of forced entry including shot off locks.

Neither Army reports nor postwar histories of liberation report shot off locks.

13. Did 20th AD combat vehicles smash through a gate, smash down a wooden fence, or break through masonry walls?

All reports are that Dachau concentration camp's main gate was opened without force, likely by soldiers of the 42nd Infantry Division, with accompanying war correspondents and in the presence of SS guards, SS officers, and members of the International Red Cross.

All reports are that the SS training facility was entered without force.

The gates, fences, and walls of both the SS training facility and the concentration camp were intact after liberation.


No physical evidence exists to support those reports.

None of that is reported in the official reports of the three co-liberating divisions or the histories of liberation.

14. Did tanks of the 20th AD fire their machine guns at a Dachau guard tower? Were the SS guards in the tower firing on the 20th AD tanks?

After liberation, the Dachau guard towers showed no signs of battle damage.

No Army reports at the time nor the histories of the liberation report any combat at Dachau.

15. Did 20th AD tanks crews arm themselves with submachine guns, dismount their tanks, and engage SS soldiers at Dachau?

No official Army reports at the time nor the histories of the liberation report any combat at Dachau.

16. Did infantry units of the 20th AD engage SS soldiers at Dachau?

No official Army reports at the time nor the histories of the liberation report any combat at Dachau.

17. Did SS soldiers fire mortars from Dachau at the 20th AD?

No official Army reports at the time nor the histories of the liberation report any significant resistance by the SS soldiers at Dachau.

18. Did 20th AD M-7 self-propelled artillery fire phosphorus and high explosives into the concentration camp?

After liberation, the camp was intact without signs of battle damage.

19. Did soldiers of the 20th kill or wound members of the SS at Dachau?.

The Seventh Army Inspector General investigated the killing of SS soldiers at Dachau.

The only killings of SS soldiers at Dachau were by soldiers of the 157th.

No SS soldiers were killed by soldiers of the 20th AD.

20. Did a SS colonel surrender Dachau to a 20th AD lieutenant then the 20th AD turning over Dachau to an Army intelligence unit.

A SS lieutenant surrendered Dachau to a 42nd ID general in the presence of a U.S war correspondent and the International Red Cross.

The exact identity of the units to which Dachau was turned over after the surrender is being researched.

The units of the three co-liberating division who participated in liberation were relieved by units of the 45th then by units of the Seventh Army.

The units of the 42nd ID with the two attached 20th AD units were outside of their division's boundaries and were inside the 45th's. The time on April 29, 1945 the units of the 42nd with the attached units of the 20th left Dachau is unknown.

21. The reports of combat at the concentration camp are similar to combat in which the 20th engaged on the roads near Dachau and in and around the town of Dachau on April 29, 1945 and the Battle of Munich on April 30, 1945. Is it possible that soldiers misidentified those engagements as having occurred at the Dachau concentration camp?

Yes.

That is consistent with how the fog or war effects oral histories.


22. Did 20th AD soldiers find bags filled with gold teeth, take the bags then turning them over to General Eisenhower?

No official Army reports or postwar liberation histories report recovery the Army recovering gold taken from teeth of Dachau inmates.

The Army recovered dental gold at Buchenwald.

That suggests that dental gold was also recovered at Dachau.

If dental gold was recovered at Dachau, that was probably in searches by Seventh Army units after liberation rather than by a soldiers of the 20th AD who were briefly at Dachau for a few hours on April 29, 1945.

If dental gold was found at Dachau, it was unlikely that it was carried off in bags by individual soldiers to be hand delivered to General Eisenhower.

The Dachau dental would have been securely handled by Army units similar to how the Buchenwald dental gold was handled


The 20th AD soldier may have added the Buchenwald gold reports to his WWII oral history and placed it at Dachau.

23. My relative said he helped liberated Dachau inmates board a train to return home.

The earliest that the liberated inmates of Dachau were returned to their homes was in June, 1945 in truck convoys by the 45th ID which serving on occupation duty.

At the time, the 20th AD was on occupation duty in southeast Germany near the Austrian border.

The 12th Armored Division reports that while on occupation duty assisting in Dachau subcamp inmates in truck convoys to their homes and truck convoys to train depots.

Further research may find that the 20th AD performed similar service while on occupation duty and that is what your relative is referring.

24. Did two soldiers of the 20th Armored Division enter the main concentration camp shortly after midnight on April 29, 1945

An an officer of a 20th AD artillery company and an enlisted man claim to have entered the main Dachau concentration camp shortly after midnight on April 29, 1945.

If their report can be substantiated, that is another account of 20th AD soldiers witnessing but not participating in the liberation of Dachau.

In FAQ #9 and #10 above we discuss that no physical evidence was found for two parts of that account. That raises questions about the credibility about the other parts of that account.

The 20th AD artillery officer claims to have been on his way to a meeting
with the 42nd ID to coordinate artillery support for April 30, 1945 operations at Munich.

The 20th AD officer's unit artillery unit was not the 20th AD artillery unit attached to the 42nd ID.


The officer with one enlisted man claim to have wandered across the 20th's and 42nd's division boundaries and into the 45th area of operations, risking friendly fire accidents, and then across and behind enemy lines.

When they realize they were behind enemy lines at risk of being killed or captured, r
ather than withdraw to safety, the officer and the enlisted man entered an enemy facility (Dachau) and buildings inside the facility.

Their oral history is reported to exist on a tape recording.

We urge a transcript be made for further research, analysis, and review of its credibility  by WWII military history scholars.

25. Did soldiers of the 20th spend the night of April 29 at SS training facility before moving on to Munich.

Spending the night of April 28 to 28, 1945 in the Dachau SS training does not meet the CMH's definition of participating in the liberation of the main Dachau concentration camp and is irrelevant to the 20th AD's recognition as a co-liberating division of the main Dachau concentration camp.

26. What if my relative’s oral history or letters do not correlate with these FAQs?
 
Oral histories are to be handled with the utmost respect.  

They are a valuable part of your family's history.  

They need to be preserved and shared.  

Historians consider them the raw material of history.

We strongly suggest that where oral histories are not collaborated by official or scholarly histories, you include a statement acknowledging this fact with the oral history.

Our job is to correlate official documents with oral histories, letters, diaries, and other documents recording soldiers' experiences.    

That an individual soldier's documents or anecdotal history do not exactly match official reporting, does not by definition, diminish said individual accounts.

When writing the most complete and accurate history of events, historians draw on such oral and personal histories, official documents prepared at the time, and other documents to, best they can, reconstruct and present the most complete and accurate accounting they can.

The fog of war, external influences, and shifting memories can skew personal perspectives.

Just as individual soldiers and units cannot see and internalize the entire picture of a broad and sweeping military operation and fluid situation across a wide geography, neither can official reporting capture all possible movements, events, and scenarios.  

While we can't put ourselves in the place of our young family members as they stumbled on and witnessed the horrors of Dachau, we can afford these heroes the pride – and, sorrow -- they share through their oral histories and letters.

The most accurate oral histories are those recorded closest to the events.  

For a range of reasons, oral histories may become less accurate the further from the events they are recorded.  

Over the years, veterans may added to their personal histories details they have acquired from other veterans, histories they have read, movies, general knowledge, and popular culture.  

It is the responsibility of all professional, amateur, and family historians, to correlate oral histories with official and scholarly histories.    

This is what our group tries to do.

27. Does a complete and accurate history of the 20th Armored Division and the liberation of Dachau exist?

No.


Composing as a complete and accurate history of 20th Armored Division and the liberation of Dachau is an ongoing effort.

We are doing the best we can to compose a complete and accurate history from our research.

We urge professional.histories to assist us and advocate that the CMH write an official history of liberation.


28. For more FAQs, see the 45th Infantry Division's Dachau Liberation FAQs

http://www.ibiblio.org/45wwiiresources/dachau/faq/faq.html


Sources (in progress):

Center of Military History Documentation Designating 20th AD Dachau Liberator

https://www.facebook.com/groups/20thArmoredDivisionInWorldWarII/permalink/2569116333149088

"Recognizing the Liberators. US Army Divisions Enter the Concentration Camps"
 by Edward J.Drea, Army History. The Professional Bulletin of Army History, Fall/Winter 1992/1993, 1-5.

The Rock Of Anzio: From Sicily To Dachau, A History Of The U.S. 45th Infantry Division by Flint Whitlock

Jurgen Zarusky  "That is not the American Way of Fighting": The Shooting of Captured SS-Men During the Liberation of Dachau"


7th Army OSS Section

https://www.facebook.com/groups/20thArmoredDivisionInWorldWarII/permalink/2289510217776369

Undated document "20th Armored Division and the Dachau Concentration Camp" by former 20th Armored Division Association President Arnold Rist

https://www.facebook.com/groups/20thArmoredDivisionInWorldWarII/permalink/1210878585639543

Liberators: The Story of the 20th Armored Division in World War II Compiled and edited by Jeff Nichols.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/20thArmoredDivisionInWorldWarII/permalink/1427512217309511

A display of boxes of gold caps and dentures removed from prisoners in Buchenwald and recovered by American troops after the liberation of the concentration camp.
 
https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1033251