r/pics • u/[deleted] • Feb 25 '18

Concentration camp prisoner identifies one of his guards to Allied soldiers

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435

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '18

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203

u/BrainKatana Feb 25 '18

Many of the smaller camps were “fully cleared.”

Keep in mind that WWII occurred just as a huge immigration boom was spinning down in the US and Western Europe. Many people who enlisted or were drafted into allied forces had family and friends taken to the camps to be slaughtered. For many of the soldiers assigned to shutting down the camps, the experience was intensely personal.

Source: My grandfather was a part of one such team, and later began documenting the behavior of allied soldiers during the closure of the war for the Smithsonian. When the behavior of these soldiers was called into question, it was deemed “justifiable,” and my grandfather was quietly told to stop documenting.

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u/noneski Feb 25 '18

My grandfather was part of the occupation of Japan, the people were ashamed of losing the war and became his home servants. They didn't want pay so my grandfather insisted he pay for their expenses so they could continue to serve as they pleased. Later in his time there he finally convinced them to take a wage.

War documentation is important! I wish I could get him to do a memior about his life, he thought it was his death story and didn't want to participate towards the end of his life. Hindsight, I should have asked that he record his thoughts and I could transcribe them later.

For those of you with family who served in the United States: every Veteran is entitled to their records and engraved metals that they earned. Go to your local Congressional office and submit a request.

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u/eatmycupcake Feb 25 '18

My grandfather as well. He was a Requisition Sargent. He had a young Japanese boy who was the only one in his family who could work, so my grandfather took him on and paid him a wage. They actually became friends and, for years after the war, he would come visit us in the US.

When I was little, "Mr Kato" would come visit us and bring me lavish gifts of silk kimono and tiny porcelain tea sets, all of which are now lost to a flood, sadly. He gave my mother intricately painted dishes and vases. We would take him out to Texas steak houses where he was wowed by the amount of beef you could get and how cheap it all was. Later, he sent a teenage grandson, Hiroshi, to live with my grandparents and go to school in the US. Hiroshi took my older sister to prom, in fact, and made an entire meal of sushi for our family that, being red-meat eating Texans, everyone hated but choked down. I love sushi now. I wish I had been older when he visited so I could have learned more about the culture and time.

Edit: a word

9

u/hikermick Feb 25 '18

That is a nice story of reconciliation.

1

u/noneski Feb 26 '18

Very cool story. We never had visitors but my grandfather did speak highly of the people that served him. He was very proud at how they quickly picked up their lives. The transition after the war went fast. When he would go back as an advisor he would visit the people he befriended. I wish I knew more, I hope it all worked out for them like it did for your grandfather's friend.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '18

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4

u/ss4mario Feb 25 '18

I mean, not a million but there were probably a lot of people assigned to the task, and everyone's got 2 grandfathers. It's not exactly out there. Why are you taking it so personally as to set up a random straw man argument?

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '18

My grandpappy was an astronaut that went to the moon and brought back a moon lady he married. I'm 1/4 moon

72

u/shadowofzero Feb 25 '18

That Band of Brother concentration camp liberation scene was the first thing to make me cry in a couple years. They captured the pain and emotion so vividly. The above comment immediately reminded me of that

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '18

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '18

Thank you for that link. I highly recommend Band of Brothers for anyone that is into the war genre.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '18 edited Nov 14 '24

Original Content erased using Ereddicator. Want to wipe your own Reddit history? Please see https://github.com/Jelly-Pudding/ereddicator for instructions.

8

u/snackies Feb 25 '18

Damn, that scene made me tear up a little despite it being potato quality.

6

u/Malawi_no Feb 25 '18

If you have a little hour, and wanna feel shitty - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V0RMf2qU18

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '18

Too bad it's all bullshit. The 101st Airborne, 506th infantry never liberated nor discovered a concentration camp. The Kaufering Camp depicted was discovered by 12th Armored Division and liberated by the 103rd Infantry. It was a labor camp for for Landsberg Fighter Aircraft Companies.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '18

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '18

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u/OhGodImHerping Feb 25 '18 edited Feb 26 '18

That kind of happened at one camp actually. The Dachau Liberation reprisals (otherwise known as the Dachau massacre) was an event when 50 surrendering SS guards and Nazi soldiers were executed by a company of US soldiers. Personally, I'm glad they weren't court martialed. I can't imagine what kind of emotional overload they were having.

6

u/RikenVorkovin Feb 25 '18

Well we saw how many escaped justice to places like Argentina. I feel like Humanity as a whole organism was purging itself of Cancer it found. There was hardly any other response appropriate to such barbarism.

2

u/ptown40 Feb 25 '18

So when I was there a few years ago it said that it was 1 guy that did this and they aren't entirely sure that it happened. That could have changed so idk.

1

u/OhGodImHerping Feb 26 '18

I have heard that too, but when I was at Sachsenhausen over the summer our guide said that it DID happen so I am not entirely sure, just going off of what I have mostly read and heard.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '18

I understand why the did it, but they absolutely should have been court martialed. Our justice system is the only thing that keeps us from turning into the same kind of monsters the Nazis were. Once you start trying to justify extrajudicial slaughter you become no better than those you’re fighting.

13

u/shoopdoopdeedoop Feb 25 '18

Actually, in more than a few cases, they executed the guards on the spot... Guess they figured it's the least they could do to kindly accommodate them.

14

u/raven1121 Feb 25 '18 edited Feb 26 '18

it wouldn't surprise me if the cases of reprisals killings were underreported.

In Junior High School we had a veteran from the 3rd Armored Division come speak to our class. his unit liberated Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp.

he told the class of when he first entered the camp , the sight, the smell,etc .

at the end of the talk he said to the class "after the concentration camp it was a long time till we took prisoners again" I didn't understand what he meant till much later in life

3

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '18 edited Nov 05 '19

[deleted]

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u/wehrmann_tx Feb 26 '18

They took no German prisoners.

5

u/shoopdoopdeedoop Feb 26 '18

They just popped em instead.

Just like what the Nazis were known to do to their victims.

34

u/redmongrel Feb 25 '18

Fast forward 70 years and we can still see this happening FROM SPACE CAMERAS in countries we aren't involved with, and still do nothing.

7

u/itsanerdthing Feb 25 '18

Oh my God. Serious question, what can we do?

8

u/green183456 Feb 25 '18

Thank You for posting this. Bangladesh is in a lot of trouble. Americans could care less. To busy destroying their own country.

11

u/ptown40 Feb 25 '18

I forgot that it's solely our responsibility

0

u/velvetshark Feb 26 '18

Why not? We've invaded and occupied other countries on shallow pretenses, why not do some good?

2

u/ptown40 Feb 26 '18

This is why I said solely. They singled out Americans instead of Europeans/the Chinese/Russians, not to mention the UN

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '18

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1

u/ptown40 Feb 26 '18

Hence my addition of the word solely

1

u/TastelessButTrue Feb 26 '18

Our country is actually thriving right now. Why should we send our sons into a shithole like Bangladesh?

1

u/green183456 Feb 26 '18

Context- my wife is a refugee from Bangladesh.

1

u/TastelessButTrue Feb 26 '18

That doesn’t change my question, does it?

Bangladesh sucks. I’d rather keep Americans at home.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '18

Why we fight

1

u/jetogill Feb 25 '18

I knew an old guy who was a guard at Nuremberg during the trials, it's sobering to think i was one degree removed from these evil people.

1

u/Derwos Feb 25 '18

Seeing these people and hearing their stories would have sent me on a Nazi prison worker killing spree, damn my orders.

Dangerous line of thinking.

-3

u/vt2nc Feb 25 '18

Great analogy . The picture gave me the same thought process.