Description:

DACHAU LIBERATION GROUPING OF S/SGT. JOHN W. THOMPSON, 12TH ARMORED DIV.
'THE SS BOYS JUST SOAKED THE PRISONERS WITH GAS AND SET THEM ON FIRE...' A large grouping of photographs, letters, insignia and documents from Staff Sgt. John W. Thompson of the 12th Armored Division, present at the liberation of a Dachau sub-camp where Jewish prisoners were burned alive by their SS guard. The 12th Armored Division debarked in Le Havre on Nov. 15, 1944, and fought through France and Germany. The division fought fiercely during the Battle of the Bulge, taking 1,700 battle casualties during the fighting in and around Herrlisheim. It is recognized as a liberating unit of the Landsberg concentration camps (Kaufering I-XI) near the Landsberg Prison, sub-camps of Dachau concentration camp, on 27 April 1945. On 29 April 1945, the 12th also liberated Oflag VII-A Murnau, a German Army POW camp for Polish Army officers and rescued VIP French prisoners from an Alpine castle in Bavaria during the Battle for Castle Itter. Thompson was attached to an artillery battery and he wrote at least 22 letters home between the time he was awaiting transport to France and Dec. 11, 1945, some via V-Mail, most by hand and these are included in the lot. Of course, wartime content is camp related or censored but there remains much good reading, in part: '...[Dec. 26, 1944] We had a few German shells land in our position...The mess truck now has a few holes in it...I was under the half track at the time...The pieces that went through the track just missed my head...we have been shelling pill boxes [on the West Wall] for days and haven't even made a dent in them...[Feb. 12, 1945] They have been shifting us up and down the line...we haven't had a rest yet except for a few days...the snow is gone and the mud is a foot deep...I took a ride into Strasbourg...you can hear rifle fire from the center of town...they are paying as high as twenty dollars for a carton of cigarettes...[April 15, 1945] A few weeks ago we started out with Patton on his drive from Luxembourg to Worms...The reason for so little trouble is the speed of the spearhead...In some cases they [German defenders] didn't know we were there until we passed by. Those we passed couldn't do anything but give up...we didn't have enough MPs to take them to the rear so they put the German officers in charge...We didn't get many of the SS troops...The news of Roosevelt's death hit the boys pretty hard...We can't have anything to do with the German people...I went four days without sleeping...[ca. April 27, 1945] They started releasing the German prisoners...We didn't get enough of the SS boys to suit me...a few miles from the town of Krumbach...' While in Frankfurt on Aug. 9, 1945 Thompson sent his mother a particularly horrifying letter describing his arrival at the Dachau sub-camp at Landsberg. In part: '...I also got some film developed while I was here. I took these pictures at a Concentration [camp] just outside Landsbourg. We overran the place on the big drive with the 3rd Army. We got there about a half hour after the SS left. The whole place was in flames and for some time before we couldn't get near enough to see what had taken place. After the fire burned down, we found what you see in the pictures. We found a few still alive and they told us that the SS set the place on fire after they decided that it was too late to move the prisoners out. Most of them were so starved that they couldn't walk and there was no transportation around to haul them away. We couldn't understand how the place burned so fast, but after a few questions we found out that the SS boys just soaked the prisoners with gas and set them on fire. When we heard that, we just spent the rest of the day hunting Krauts. We found a few. What I did I would rather not talk about. We counted 450 bodies and we found out that they were all alive when they were set on fire...I carry a gun now when I go anywhere in hopes that some of these bastards will make a slip...when I'm alone it's all I can think about...' Four gruesome photographs are included which Thompson sent his mother, most 3.5 x 5 in., depicting the camp and focusing on the charred victims of the Nazis' brutality amidst the smoking ruins of the camp. Other items in the grouping include six additional photos, largely images with friends in the service, training, etc.; Thompson's Bronze Starr, shoulder patch, chest ribbons (European Theater with three battle stars), sergeant stripes and DUI pins; five larger printed photos including 'Acres of Bodies' at Landsberg; discharge papers, and some related ephemera. An important historic record. Kaufering was the largest of the Dachau subcamps and also the one with the worst conditions; about half of the 30,000 prisoners died from hunger, disease, executions, or during the death marches. It housed Jewish prisoners intended to be used for the production of Me-262 jet aircraft, but not a single aircraft ever left the plant.

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July 28, 2022 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

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