Description:

U.S. ARMY SURGEON'S REPORT ON DACHAU FIVE DAYS AFTER LIBERATION
Important typed draft report issued by the 6th Army Group Office of the Surgeon (unsigned), 4pp. legal folio, [n.p. but likely Dachau], May 4, 1945 and headed: "Inspection Dachau Concentration Camp, 2 May 1945". The camp had been liberated only three days before the "sanitary inspection" which had been ordered on an emergency basis to save as many of the emaciated and diseased as possible. The physical layout of the camp is briefly described before living conditions are examined. In small part: "...there were four people taking turns sleeping in a single bed...bathing facilities were apparently not used...50%...new arrivals...were extremely emaciated...all gave the appearance of indifference and apathy...doubtful if these people will ever recover...irrespective of treatment many will go on and die...800 open cases of tuberculosis...many more unrecognized at this time...1200 cases of typhus...the doctor in charge of the hospital stated that he had 40 doctors...during the past two years 21 doctors had died...Many are dying daily. 110 died on 1 May 45...each nationality was beginning to be concerned only for their own people...In the camp there is a very large shower...and adjacent Disinfection plant using a gas for sterilization of clothing...a number of railroad cars with many corpses...a number of dead SS troops. In the crematorium which can handle 60 bodies a day, there were approximately 1200 corpses..." In reality, the shower and likely the disinfection room as well were both used to gas Jews and Roma late in the war, but this fact was unknown to the American liberators at this early stage. The report further suggests that bodies be immediately burned or buried, that prisoners and facilities be dusted with DDT, that the malnourished be carefully fed, and that the camp be cleared and closed as soon as possible.

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July 7, 2015 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

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