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          U.S. Army Photographer PatchSignal Corps and the Holocaust SHAEF Patch12th Army Group Patch


The role of combat units in the liberation of concentration camps and death march rescues is recorded in many WWII histories and portrayed in popular culture.

The Signal Corps was also involved. Among the more better known are:
Almost unknown, overlooked, forgotten and lost to history are other contributions by Signal Corps soldiers.

The Liberation of Camps and Subcamps

Communications Support for Division Signal Companies

The U.S. Army Center of Military History and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum lists 28 infantry, armored, and air borne divisions as liberators of 40 camps and subcamps.

Divisions had about 16 units with about 14,000 soldiers. Only a few soldiers from a few combat units entered the camp.

Every division had a Signal Company. Those Signal Company were within a few miles of the camp providing lateral communications among the division's units while combat units entered the camp.

For example, on April 29, 1945, while elements of "I" and "L" Companies of  the 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division supported by elements of the 191st Tank Battalion entered Dachau, the 45th Signal Company was moving from Schrobenhausen about 39 miles by road north of Dachau to Haimhausen, about 8 miles by road northeast of Dachau.

The Signal Company of the other 27 divisions were performed similar duties during the liberation of camps and subcamps.

Witnessing, Documenting, and Caring for the Dead

(General) Eisenhower encouraged American soldiers in the vicinity of a concentration camp to tour the site, take photographs, and write letters to their families in the United States describing what they had seen.

- The United States and The Holocaust, Liberation, 1942–45, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-united-states-and-the-holocaust-1942-45

33rd Signal Construction Battalion: Ohrdruf, mid-April 1945

35th Signal Construction Battalion: Touring Buchenwald on or after May 1, 1945, pages 96 to 106

215th Signal Company
: April 14, 1945: Burial of the dead from the Nordhausen sub-camp of the Dora-Mittelbau Concentration Camp.

3253rd Signal Service Company (Radio Intelligence): Photos of Dachau: From sometimes between April 30 and May 2, 1945

All material not in the public domain Copyright 2023 -2024 Leonard H. Cizewski
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Update, Corrective and Revision History:
November 29, 2023


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Last Major Update: June 15, 2023