attention and salute us as tears slowly trickled down his cheeks. Massacre was the word here, knives and bullets for the males, desert death marches, particularly sadistic attention from the SS Troopers. Up until the camp liberation, [26] Meanwhile, the 3rd Brigade, 104th Division,[27] as well as the 4th Brigade, 104th Division both activated at Fort Lawton, Washington. While under American command on 16 November 1944, the division went on another offensive in support of Operation Queen, taking Stolberg and pushing on against heavy resistance. Leon Karalokian of the 104th Signal Company is prisoners were exposed to gas, noise, and the dust of explosions. - showing him the first kind act in years. The 104th Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the US Army's Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988. of maneuver and bold night attacks and teamwork were outstanding and held casualties down to 1445 killed, 4801 wounded, 111 missing in action, for a total of 6357.(14). and the humidity was ninety percent. with our own wounded. The Nizkor Project, http://nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/camps/buchenwald/press/reuters.040395 (Oct. 24, 2009). It was two miles in length, with two large (2), Private Galione had indeed found something "big". [19] During the Battle of the Bulge, the 104th actively defended its sector near Duren and Merken (in German only) from 15 December 1944 to 22 February 1945. While the bulk of the division moved near Aachen, Germany, elements remained to secure Moerdijk until 7 November, when they were relieved. The 104th Division was then assigned the mission of conducting One Station Unit Training, Basic Combat Training, Advanced Individual Training, and Combat Support training. A member of the 104th Infantry Division - known as the Timberwolves - Jack and his These men were willing to emaciated frames. My legs just This meeting helped hasten the liberation of the city of Halle and spare it from further destruction. I learned that he Downs, Kenneth T. "Nothing Stopped the Timberwolves." Speed would save lives, so we fell into a day of evacuation, National Timberwolf Association. (5), August of 1943 saw the arrival of first prisoners at camp Mittelbau Dora. The liberation of Camp Mittelbau Dora provided the December 1, 2009. [1] The division was assigned to III Corps of the Ninth United States Army, part of the Twelfth United States Army Group. With the Allies firmly on the north side of the Mark River, German resistance collapsed. [12][13], Housing conditions were particularly bad, because there were no bunks; prisoners had to sleep in a thin layer of straw. Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust. We got almost nothing to eat, a piece of bread, perhaps two or three potatoes. I heard The Dora-Mittelbau (also known as Dora-Nordhausen or Nordhausen) camp was established in central Germany near the southern Harz Mountains, north of the town of Nordhausen. [13], The 104th Infantry Division sailed for the Western Front on 27 August 1944. [16][c] Some had been dead before the air raid;[5] others were burned to death or died after the air raid from neglect. Working and living conditions at the camp were deplorable. The "Timberwolf" division advanced into Belgium by the end of the following month. [8] Seriously ill prisoners from incoming transports and other subcamps of Mittelbau-Dora were transported to Boelcke-Kaserne to die;[9] some forced laborers were also sent there after becoming unable to work. They were still alive. Sobered and drained each of us eventually left the area, in the While the U.S. 7th Armored Division was assigned static duty holding the right flank of the gains made during the failed Market Garden operation, the 104th Infantry Division was to participate in the First Canadian Army's taking of the Scheldt. responsible for the operation of Mittelbau Dora Camp. [7][5] According to the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, "it is difficult to describe in words" the conditions in the second garage, where prisoners were left to die. I often wonder if he made it back to life, and if he had ever been The figure of 3,000 does not include the 2,250 sick and dying prisoners who were sent on an "annihilation transport" to. continued with Easter Sunday and April Fool's Day practically unnoticed. Main telephone: 202.488.0400 Every so often, the floor would be hosed down in order to clean out the excrement. (6) Richard Murphy, "Survivors of V2 Nazi Slave Camp Mark Liberation," Reuters, April 10, 1995, under "The Nizkor Project," http://nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/camps/buchenwald/press/reuters.040395 (Oct. 24, 2009). have the gas chambers of Dachau or Buchenwald, a refinement apparently reserved An hour-by-hour account of the liberation of concentration camp Dachau, based on numerous interviews with former prisoners and the American soldiers who liberated them. As an American of Armenian ancestry I had [38] NFL Player Bob Shaw also served with the 104th and was awarded the Bronze Star during World War II. Visit . Recognition as a Liberating Unit No one else was tried for crimes committed at the subcamp. This page last updated: 26 October 20141999 National Timberwolf AssociationSite originally developed by Peter Branton There were many bodies strewn about. Staring at the human debris on "Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp - Stanley Dunn." The Prisoners assigned to this duty could draw the rations of the dead. by the hungry and desperate enemy, continued as tongue-twisting towns and One Parisian business told The full As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they found tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners in deplorable conditions. Sergeant Ragene Farris of the 329th Medical Some female forced laborers deliberately had children in hopes of being sent home; other children were incidentally conceived from careless or violent sexual relationships in the forced labor camps. It is primarily responsible for Combat Service Support training for soldiers entering the Ordnance Corps and other related fields. didn't know. If you discover problems, please advise the Webmaster. [18][12][4] American soldiers photographed and filmed the conditions at the camp, which were widely distributed in international media. They are Willy F. James Jr., for scouting German positions while being pinned down by machine gun fire,[39] and Cecil H. Bolton, who led a company of men on the attack despite wounds from a mortar shell. His dozen or so photos from Mittelbau-Dora show rows of emaciated corpses in brutal clarity (inexplicably,. Photographs and newsreel footage of the camp were reported internationally and made Nordhausen notorious in many parts of the world. Today, it is known as the 104th Division (Leader Training) and based at Fort Lewis, Washington, as a training unit of the United States Army Reserve. [30] The 7th Brigade, 104th Division activated at Vancouver, Washington. Photo courtesy of NARA. For the next two days, the Timberwolves pursued enemy remnants north to the Meuse. he raised up and said, in beautiful Parisian French, that if he were stronger Reuters, April 10, 1995. We saw in a concentration camp . After World War II, this division was reorganized primarily as a training division for Reserve forces. In December, the 104th was forced into defensive positions by German counterattacks, but in March 1945, the division entered the Rhineland and captured the city of Cologne. Despite this, the advance was steady, though paid for in the lives of the 104th Division soldiers. gear, and off across bomb-cratered grounds we picked our way to this particular 193-mile segment from the Rhine to Paderborn had taken only nine days with morning of 11 April dawned with yet another strangely named town to be reckoned liberation of the camp: I am still amazed today that anyone survived. Certainly, the Nazi's saw the labor camp as an opportunity to "kill two birds with one stone". As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they found tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners in deplorable conditions. Comments? from the dead. During that time, it was reassigned to XIX Corps of the Ninth United States Army. By the end of World War II, many soldiers had witnessed the I followed the trains all the way down, for miles, and found a train car filled with dead Was this also the fate of the grandparents, uncles, and aunts I had never known?' "Survivors of V2 Nazi Slave Camp Mark Liberation." here in production of V-1 and V-2 bombs*. the long to be remembered and heart gripping story from first-hand accounts: "In Nordhausen the Division On the grounds There were lots of accidents, people buried alive under rocks and rubble. Along the division's front, the Germans were spread thinly and did not have continuous lines of defense. The 10th Armored Division participated in major WWII campaigns and is recognized for liberating a subcamp of . The barracks was a subcamp of the Mittelbau-Dora Nazi concentration camp. Warning sign on the camp fence of the concentration subcamp in the Boelcke Casern in Nordhausen, April 1945, detail. [15] By 7 November, the fighting in the Netherlands cost the Timberwolves 1,426 casualties, including 313 killed and 103 missing. From 1943 until 1945, 60,000 prisoners had toiled In November, the unit was already approaching the German city of Aachen. Galione-Nahas, Mary. of Frenchmen had established a small colony in the large cellar of another The Timberwolves were then assigned to Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group under the British I Corps, within the First Canadian Army, along with the U.S. 7th Armored Division, in order to clear out the Scheldt Estuary and open the port of Antwerp. Factory occupied large tunnels underneath a mountain near Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains in central Germany. In addition to burying the dead, the Allied forces attempted to help and comfort the survivors with food, clothing, and medical assistance. The strongly Nazified town of Nordhausen fell before It was designed by Charles Livingston Bull, artist and authority on wild life, and represents the northwest. never erase from memories. The division reports back to headquarters that it has uncovered a large concentration camp near the town of Nordhausen. It became Casualty figures for the 104th Infantry Division, European theater of operations: The nickname of the 104th Infantry Division, "Timberwolf," originated from the division's insignia, a gray timberwolf. But, the photos that follow in the camp had been worked, beaten and forced at top speed until they could under the casing were neatly piled about seventy-five bodies, a sight I could On April 11, the American 6th Armored Division liberated Buchenwald near Weimar, one of the largest concentration camps constructed in Germany. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW By the end of the training, it had turned out 300 new reservists. This camp was created by the SS for prisoners too weak or too ill to work in the tunnels of Dora on the fabrication of the German V1 and V2 rockets. Story. Under the supervision of the US First Army, German civilians from Nordhausen carry victims of the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp to mass graves. The "Timberwolf" division discovered 3,000 corpses lying around the camp and some 750 emaciated, starving, and ill prisoners who had been left behind when the SS evacuated the inmates on death marches. The very few walking skeletons able to stand wandered about dazedly in noticed; I would say she was about seventeen years old. if anyone spoke French. [14] The division received 9 Distinguished Unit Citations and three campaign streamers during 200 days of combat. 8 September, 1944.). The Royal Navy took three weeks to sweep the estuary waters clear of mines, and in early December 1944, the port of Antwerp was open to Allied shipping. hunger and rape for the women and children. Boelcke-Kaserne concentration camp (transl. found a large German concentration camp for political prisoners, discovering about twenty-five men or half-men. [5] Assigned to the division were the 207th and 208th Infantry Brigades, containing the 413th, 414th, 415th, and 416th Infantry Regiments. The hours were passing. Washington: Pleasant Word Press 2004. This page last updated: 6 October, 20101999 National Timberwolf AssociationQuestions? The National Timberwolf Pups Association Heinrich Schmidt and an SS guard were tried in 1947 in the Dora Trial at Dachau for abuses at Boelcke-Kaserne, but they were acquitted for lack of evidence. women and children. "(8) Many prisoners perished due to the The 104th began combat operations on 25 and 26 October and began to attack the Germans, who offered varying levels of resistance. Main telephone: 202.488.0400 Activated in 1921, the division was created as an infantry unit with a focus on nighttime combat operations. Moisture seemed to grip everything and everyone. bearers and medical technicians as well as any other men available from duties similar background, on the eye witnessed horror stories of an even more Maintained by Sandra Eberhard, National Timberwolf Pups Association member. We were battle-tired experience never to be forgotten by those who passed through it. Now we approached the cellar stairs leading to the French group. [23] In 1961, the division was relocated to Vancouver Barracks, Washington. majority of prisoners were French (mainly members of the French Resistance). The capture of this town was the culmination of much hard fighting and having taken the site one could readily see why such strong resistance was met. In all, around 5,000 V2s were launched from sites along the English Channel, killing thousands of British civilians. hundred German litter bearers were gathered up and rushed to the The History of the 104th Infantry DivisionBy Leo Hoegh & Howard J. Doyle, Sixty-eight years after the original publication of this history, the National Timberwolf Pups Association Two miles northwest of Nordhausen a huge underground [14], Boelcke-Kaserne housed the largest percentage of Jews in the Mittelbau-Dora complex, except for one labor subcamp for Jewish women. [5] Additional prisoners arrived in June 1944 for forced labor with Junkers and in the Mittelwerk tunnel system, mostly for the production of V-1 and V-2 rockets. American personnel forced hundreds of German citizens from the nearby town of Nordhausen to bear witness to the atrocities, help evacuate the (Accessed Oct. 22, 2009). Schmidt was tried again at the Third Majdanek Trial in 1979 for unrelated crimes, and again acquitted. At Buchenwald, whose main camp contained over 110,000 prisoners by February 1945, many prisoners were forced to work in a factory onsite. Activated in 1921 and deployed during World War II, the division saw almost 200 days of fighting in northwestern Europe as it fought through France, Netherlands, Belgium, and western Germany, fighting back several fierce German counterattacks as it advanced through the theater throughout late 1944 and 1945. We went downstairs into a filth indescribable, beginning of the National Timberwolf Pups Association . This long-dreaded the impact of events. Division, to recognize the contribution of the 34,000 men who proudly wore the Timberwolf [14] That same day, General Allen received orders from the U.S. First Army, releasing it from Canadian control. [23], In 1967, the division was reorganized. It was originally a subcamp of Buchenwald. US authorities also ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead. Survivors of the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp, located near Nordhausen, Germany, April 14, 1945. work on longer, after which they were starved off or killed and torture. US authorities also ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead. value, put an enormous strain on the British public. Forty percent of the prisoners were Polish, of whom most were thought to be Jews. Nordhausen "became the defining image of National Socialist camp terror" in many parts of the world. We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. The 193 mile segment from the Rhine to the Paderborn had taken only nine days with captured Wehrmacht vehicles and even barnyard carts here, not in America or Russia." In addition, two soldiers from this division were awarded the Medal of Honor for their service in combat. [17], The prisoners in the worst critical condition were taken to the 51st Field Hospital. But few realized the evil acts that Hitler and his Nazi regime were committing against humanity. Eibelshausen appeared and were soon overrun. [15] It then moved across the Roer taking Huchem-Stammeln, Birkesdorf, and North Duren. serve as a silent witness to the evil committed at Camp Mittelbau Dora. [2] Populated mostly with officers through the Reserve Officers Training Corps from colleges and universities in its allotted states, the division remained basically an officer cadre with few enlisted men, and would not see significant duty until World War II.[8]. [4][12], According to Michael J. Neufeld, the atrocities at Boelcke-Kaserne were minimized after the war to protect the careers of German rocket scientists who had worked at other subcamps of Mittelbau-Dora. (15) The men of the 104th certainly must have agreed. US Airman inspecting V-1 factory at Camp Mittelbau-Dora. (11) The U.S. Army rushed medical personnel, food, and equipment to the with. Among the men of the 104th Infantry Division was a medic from Brooklyn, New York. The 104th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army. created to accurately portray and preserve the World War II history of the 104th Infantry A new subcamp of Buchenwald Concentration Camp was thus founded: the Arbeitslager Dora (Dora labour camp), as it was officially designated by the SS. Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics, Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically, Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust, Explore the ID Cards to learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust. predominantly Polish slave workers, with some French, conscripted to turn out It began taking on the responsibility of holding training programs for new soldiers of the US Army Reserve. risk their lives in order to protect the world from tyranny. The 104th Infantry Division discovered approximately 3,000 corpses lying around the camp and some 750 emaciated, starving and ill prisoners who had been left behind when the SS evacuated the inmates on death marches. The Journey of Private Galione 415B Liberator of Mittelbau Dora, Concentration Camp Nordhausen, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=104th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)&oldid=1147028721, Infantry divisions of the United States Army, United States Army divisions during World War II, Military units and formations established in 1921, Infantry divisions of the United States Army in World War II, Training divisions of the United States Army, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, "Nothing in Hell can stop the Timberwolves". on to direct the U.S. Space Program. The US 104th Infantry and 3rd Armored Division liberated Dora-Mittelbau on April 11, 1945, but found only a few prisoners. The soldiers reacted in shock and disbelief to the evidence of Nazi atrocities. Click here for order form: heap of ashes each day. Dark Ages to walk into one of these cellar-cells and seek out the living; like trial commenced on August 7, 1947 at the Dachau internment camp against those This changed after the Rosenbach was one of the fortunate few to survive Camp Mittelbau Dora. My legs were tired, weak, and the wound in my leg was raw. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky also served with the 104th during WW2. and there were about thirty corpses piled on the ground awaiting such treatment of the Timberwolves will endure. unbelievable to an American; a job distasteful and sobering; one created by the Americans of similar background, on the eye witnessed horror stories of an even more sanguine genocide in Turkey three decades earlier. After fierce fighting in the Ruhr pocket, it advanced into central Germany and took the Prussian university town of Halle on April 19. Deployed during World War II, the division saw almost 200 . The 104th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army. shoulder insignia and to honor the memory of those gallant men who perished in battle. Laboring in the dark, unventilated caverns; the prisoners endured back-breaking labor, malnutrition and disease, as well as the random brutality of the guards. effective, the world's first medium-range ballistic missile. The death toll from the first raid was 450 in the block for tuberculosis sufferers,[11] and the second raid killed about 1,000 people. never occurred. became a name to be stamped forever in the annuals of Timberwolf and captured Wehrmacht vehicles and even barnyard carts supplementing more Main telephone: 202.488.0400 When US forces liberated Dora-Mittelbau in April 1945, only a few prisoners were still in the camp. . I asked myself, 'Is this what is meant by genocide? After fierce fighting in the Ruhr pocket, it advanced into central Germany and took the Prussian university town of Halle on April 19. The former soldiers of the 104th Infantry Division, bound together by common memories (2) Mary Galione-Nahas, The Journey of Private Galione: How America Became a Super Power, (Washington: Pleasant Word Press 2004). The 104th Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the US Army's Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988. We appreciate your comments about this site. One survivor, Franz Rosenbach was arrested in Austria because he was a gypsy and therefore deemed "racially inferior" by Hitler's Nazi Regime. More than a thousand prisoners were killed during the bombing of Nordhausen by the Royal Air Force on 34 April 1945. [3][4], On 8 January 1945, the SS-Totenkopfverbnde, which ran the concentration camp system, took over two two-storey garages of the Luftwaffe barracks to use as housing for 6,000 prisoners who were forced to work in the V-2 rocket production in nearby underground factories. The division was ordered into active military service on 15 September 1942 under the command of Major General Gilbert R. Cook, and was reorganized as the 104th Infantry Division at Camp Adair, Oregon. The 5th Brigade, 104th Division was activated at Salt Lake City, Utah. Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust. Washington, DC 20024-2126 In the 19 years since this program was inaugurated, the Museum and the Center of Military History have recognized 35 U.S. Army divisions for their heroism, gallantry, and help in liberating prisoners The division insignia is a gray Timberwolf's head on a balsam green disc. . United States Army Investigation and Trial Records of War Criminals, National Archives and Records Service. As part of an army-wide initiative known as the Reorganization Objective Army Division plan, the division's regiments were disbanded and replaced with larger and more versatile brigades. of the history of the 104th Infantry Division & to sign our Guestbook. In this manner, about one All categories. generally speaking, there was no special hatred of the enemy.

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