The war-hardened soldiers of the 104th had seen the worst in humanity. 104th Division (Institutional Training), HQ (to include: Headquarters (less detachment), 1st Brigade, 104th Division, 1st Battalion, 414th Regiment, 2d Battalion, 414th Regiment, 1st Battalion, 415th Regiment, 2d Battalion, 415th Regiment, 3d Battalion, 415th Regiment, 1043d Training Detachment, Headquarters, 3d Brigade, 104th Division, 1st Battalion, 104th Regiment, 2d Battalion, 104th Regiment, 3d Battalion, 104th Regiment, 4th Battalion, 104th Regiment, 5th Battalion, 104th Regiment, 1041st Training Detachment, U.S. Army Regional Training Site, Sacramento, Headquarters 4th Brigade, 104th Division, 6th Battalion, 104th Regiment, 7th Battalion, 104th Regiment, 8th Battalion, 104th Regiment, Detachment, 9th Battalion, 104th Regiment, Headquarters, 6th Brigade, 104th Division, 10 Battalion, 104th Regiment, 11th Battalion, 104th Regiment, Headquarters, 7th Brigade, 104th Division, 1st Battalion, 413th Regiment, 2d Battalion, 413th Regiment, 3d Battalion, 413th Regiment, Detachment, Headquarters, 8th Brigade, 104th Division, 3d Battalion, 414th Regiment, 104th Army Band. walking into a world apart and returning to bring these shadow-men into the
[5] Most of the prisoner functionaries were German "green triangle" prisoners (convicted criminals) whose beatings and cruelty made the situation even worse.[7][14]. TTY: 202.488.0406, The Holocaust and World War II: Key Dates, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. Speed would save lives, so we fell into a day of evacuation,
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 On April 11, the 104th Infantry and the 3rd Armored Divisions liberated Nordhausen death camp, a subcamp of Mittlebau concentration camp, which they discovered nearby. Monuments - 104th Infantry Division Home Page This site is dedicated to all those who served on the Home Front as well as those who fought and those who never came home, who lie mute beneath rank upon rank of white marble markers and other unmarked places forever known but to their God. Only later I thought of what I had seen.
We saw those on a bank who had been cut down by machine guns
Caggiano, Robert . Main telephone: 202.488.0400 . [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. factory and the camp, with German criminals as strawbosses. French survivor Jean Mialet is quoted as stating "This is what hell must be like" when speaking of Mittelbau Dora. 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. last token of those who enslaved and killed them. morning of 11 April dawned with yet another strangely named town to be reckoned
had fallen, gangrened and naked. It was in. survivors, and bury the dead. Boelcke Barracks; also Nordhausen) was a subcamp of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp complex where prisoners were left to die after they became unable to work. 104th Infantry Division (United States) | Military Wiki | Fandom We appreciate your comments about this site. In addition, two soldiers from this division were awarded the Medal of Honor for their service in combat. Murphy, Richard. (5), August of 1943 saw the arrival of first prisoners at camp Mittelbau Dora. flesh and bones into the cement floor. 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. The 5th Brigade, 104th Division was activated at Salt Lake City, Utah. We saw, at
Joining the Battle of the Scheldt, the division moved into defensive positions in the vicinity of Wuustwezel, Belgium on 23 October 1944. 107 prisoners from Buchenwald began work on the tunnels with the intent of expanding the existing storage depot into a secret underground missile . . (16) National Timberwolf Association, "Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp," 104th Infantry Division, http://www.104infdiv.org/concamp.htm (accessed Oct. 10, 2009). (11) The U.S. Army rushed medical personnel, food, and equipment to the (4) The V2 was developed by Wernher von Braun, who after World War II went Nordhausen was liberated by the 104th US Infantry Division on April 12th, 1945. Stanley Dunn," National Timberwolf Association, www.104infdiv.org (accessed Oct. 22, 2009). Company is most fitting: The emotional impact was heavy on all who were witness to these incidents but considerably more so on this writer. At Buchenwald, whose main camp contained over 110,000 prisoners by February 1945, many prisoners were forced to work in a factory onsite. any serious impressions at the moment. Breaking out of the Remagen Bridgehead on 25 March, 1945, the 104th Infantry Division, as part of the U.S. VII Corps, was teamed with the 3rd Armored Division for a rapid advance of an eventual 375-mile penetration deep into the heart of central Germany. Each Timberwolf can read between the lines - 104infdiv.org The soldiers reacted in shock and disbelief to the evidence of Nazi atrocities. The Saturday Evening Post (August 17, 1946): 20-43. National Timberwolf Association. Last edited on 28 November 2022, at 20:14, Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp complex, "Creating a Memory for the German Rocket Program for the Cold War", Color footage of corpses found after liberation, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boelcke-Kaserne_concentration_camp&oldid=1124413574, This page was last edited on 28 November 2022, at 20:14. 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. [18] On 5 March, after heavy fighting, it entered Kln. In the June-July
Tags: liberating units US Army. "Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp - Stanley Dunn." The As a result of the actions of the 104th and their Allied counterparts, the Scheldt Estuary was cleared. In addition to burying the dead, the Allied forces attempted to help and comfort the survivors with food, clothing, and medical assistance. those who ruled the old Turkish Otterman Empire. (3) Camp Mittelbau Dora was established Americans of similar background, on the eye witnessed horror stories of an even more sanguine genocide in Turkey three decades earlier. serve as a silent witness to the evil committed at Camp Mittelbau Dora. (11) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "104th Infantry Division Recognized as Liberating Unit," 104th Infantry Division, www.104infdiv.org (accessed Oct. 11, 2009). Concentration Camp, was first viewed as just another spot on the map, but
[19], Josten and Kestel were tried at the Auschwitz Trial in Krakw and the Buchenwald Trial at Dachau respectively; both were convicted and executed for crimes committed at other camps. 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. 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. Father Edward Doyle's Testimony 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. Some of these, lying in double-decked wooden
We pulled three or four feebly struggling living ones from the bottom
From the 104th Training Division (LT) Commander (2) Mary Galione-Nahas, The Journey of Private Galione: How America Became a Super Power, (Washington: Pleasant Word Press 2004). never erase from memories. Liberation of Dora-Mittelbau | Holocaust Encyclopedia Zevenbergen was captured and the Meuse was reached on 5 November. Now we approached the cellar stairs leading to the French group. 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. Initially majority of prisoners were French (mainly members of the French Resistance). We found out the full meaning of the words
US Airman inspecting V-1 factory at Camp Mittelbau-Dora. the ground awaiting burial I asked myself, 'Is this what is meant by genocide? After defending the west bank of the Rhine River, the division crossed the river at Honnef on 22 March 1945, and attacked to the east of the Remagen bridgehead. Today, it is known as the 104th Training Division (Leader Training) and based at Fort Lewis, Washington, as a training unit of the United States Army Reserve . Jules Helfner's handwritten note on reverse of photo from Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. The liberation of the camp had a profound effect on the men of the 104th and the following story is that of veteran Stanley Dunn, as told to Robert Caggiano on April 26, 2001: After the 104th both discovered and liberated the Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp in Nordhausen Germany, the horror of what these combat veterans witnessed affected each man differently. of the 104th Division Timberwolves who were there and witnessed that
You are invited to read the rest
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. My Grandmother's cousin, Jack Biolchini bore witness to the aftermath of the atrocities committed by the Nazi's at Camp Mittelbau Dora. Its men were to write sagas of sacrifice, devotion and heroism. 104th Inf Div - RootsWeb 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. Timberwolf Tracks Order Form, WRITTEN BY THE SOLDIERS OFTHE 104TH INFANTRY DIVISION, TIMBERWOLVES
In addition, actor James G. Snitzer was a member of the 104th and died in combat in 1945. Article. [10][11] On 15 October 1943, Major General Terry de la Mesa Allen Sr. took command of the division. The Americans were given responsibility for taking 22 miles of wet, low country from the Belgian border to the Meuse (Maas). The temperature was eight or nine degrees Celsius (46 - 48 degrees Fahrenheit) A member of the 104th Infantry Division - known as the Timberwolves - Jack and his Factory occupied large tunnels underneath a mountain near Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains in central Germany. Deployed during World War II, the division saw almost 200 . composure. US authorities also ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead. similar background, on the eye witnessed horror stories of an even more
[23], During World War II, soldiers of the division were awarded two Medals of Honor, 14 Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, 642 Silver Star Medals, six Legion of Merit medals, 20 Soldier's Medals, 2,797 Bronze Star Medals, and 40 Air Medals. 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. --
[13], The 104th Infantry Division sailed for the Western Front on 27 August 1944. Men lay as they starved, discolored, and lying in indescribable
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW (12) Robert Caggiano, "Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp ? [16] The American soldiers were outraged; one wrote, "No written word can properly convey the atmosphere of such a charnel house, the unbearable stench of decomposing bodies, the sight of live human beings lying cheek by jowl with the ten-day dead"[15] A 15 April report describes the camp as "the most horrifying example of Nazi terrorism imaginable". in enormous underground factories the deadly supersonic V-2 rockets. executed at the slightest suggestion of sabotage. All categories. These men were dedicated to continuing the spirit of fellowship and teamwork from which
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. By the end of the training, it had turned out 300 new reservists. At the outbreak of World War II, the 104th Infantry Division began preparing to participate in the war in Europe. responsible for the operation of Mittelbau Dora Camp. [40] Bernard Moore was a member of the 104th Timberwolves and went on to be the manager at the Waldorf Astoria Towers in New York, later promoted to the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC.[41]. It was briefly inactivated from 2008 until 2010 when it was . [7] The conditions were used to motivate prisoners in other subcamps to work hard lest they be sent to die at Boelcke-Kaserne. The Timberwolves remained focused on their main objective: Eliminate enemy opposition and ensure Hitler's downfall. [5] The 207th and 208th Infantry Brigades did not reactivate as part of an army-wide elimination of brigade commands within its divisions. He looked to be
The "Timberwolf" division advanced into Belgium by the end of the following month. It was designed by Charles Livingston Bull, artist and authority on wild life, and represents the northwest. From 1946 until 2008, it was part of the United States Army Reserve. Medics with patient at Camp Mittelbau-Dora, Corpses at the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp. She lay there where she
On April 11, 1945, the 104th Infantry Division entered the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp complex [also known as Nordhausen] in Germany's Thuringia region. all present. Shephard, Ben. history of the 104th Infantry Division, Timberwolf Tracks , relates
Today, it is known as the 104th Training Division (Leader Training) and based at Fort Lewis, Washington, as a training unit of the United States Army Reserve. knives and bullets for the males, desert death marches, hunger and rape for the
8 September, 1944.). We got almost nothing to eat, a piece of bread, perhaps two or three potatoes. [6] The concentration camp prisoners were separated from the forced laborers by an electrified fence topped with barbed wire, and transported to work via a purpose-built railway spur. [15] By 7 November, the fighting in the Netherlands cost the Timberwolves 1,426 casualties, including 313 killed and 103 missing. Yet in a short period of two days I and many others of the
of the stairs. continued to contend with sporadic counter-attacks from the resisting German army. shoulder insignia and to honor the memory of those gallant men who perished in battle. the impact of events. Division, to recognize the contribution of the 34,000 men who proudly wore the Timberwolf
and torture. December 1, 2009. about twenty-five men or half-men. Montgomery and the Canadian commanders sent their congratulations, and General Allen disseminated copies of their letters to his regiments and wrote a personal letter of thanks to everyone in the division, concluding with his favorite motto, "Nothing in Hell must stop the Timberwolves!" This changed after the acquitted.(13). [6] As a unit of the Organized Reserves, the division's subordinate units were spread among the states of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. As the 104th advanced into Thuringia, the unit overran Nordhausen and the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp on April 11, 1945. [2] After training at Camp Adair, the division participation in the Oregon Maneuver combat exercise in the fall of 1943. Additional Nordhausen accounts can be found in our War
Photographs and newsreel footage of the camp were reported internationally and made Nordhausen notorious in many parts of the world. Men such as Jack Biolchini felt as though they could not, and should not speak of the atrocities. September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far by John C. McManus pp. attention and salute us as tears slowly trickled down his cheeks. Among the men of the 104th Infantry Division was a medic from Brooklyn, New York. A million or more Armenian lives destroyed at the whim of those who ruled the old Turkish Ottoman Empire. seventy-five but was only forty-five. Nordhausen, home of the Mittelbau-Dora
The barracks was a subcamp of the Mittelbau-Dora Nazi concentration camp. 406420, Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953), "The Institute of Heraldry: 104th Division", "Archives West: Robert Rust photograph collection, 19301950", "U.S. Army Reserve > Commands > Functional > 108th TNG CMD", "Obituary: Leo Hoegh, 92, Civil Defense Chief for Eisenhower", "Medal of Honor Recipients World War II (AF)", "Medal of Honor Recipients World War II (GL)", United States Army Center of Military History, 104th Infantry Division Command Personnel, Timberwolves: The Story of the 104th Infantry Division. After 65 years
104th Infantry Division . met our eyes. they worked several days carrying litter cases and collecting corpses by hand. machine was crumbling, but counter attacks and stubborn pockets of resistance,
Reuters, April 10, 1995. PDF 104TH INFANTRY DAY - Minnesota Nordhausen "became the defining image of National Socialist camp terror" in many parts of the world. [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. Moisture seemed to grip everything and everyone. factory. (Accessed Oct. 22, 2009). I saw one man feebly stagger to
The Liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps - WWII Memorial. Friends The 91st Infantry Division (famously nicknamed as the "Wild West Division" with a "Fir Tree" as its Division insignia to symbolize its traditional home of the Far West) is an infantry division of the United States Army that fought in World War I and World War II. [18] The division took temporary command of assets from the 69th Infantry Division in early May. He was comparatively healthy, as
Would that it was possible to take the doubters by the hand, back through the years, and point out the tragedy of this minor concentration camp! They never failed to attain an objective on schedule. effective, the world's first medium-range ballistic missile. Nordhausen did not have the huge inmate of Auschwitz. After World War II, this division was reorganized primarily as a training division for Reserve forces. to do. explosives were placed: "When the explosives were set off, prisoners had to start clearing up immediately. As an American of Armenian ancestry I had been brought up, as have virtually all first and second generation The division reports back to headquarters that it has uncovered a large concentration camp near the town of Nordhausen. It was located inside a former Luftwaffe barracks complex in Nordhausen, Thuringia, Germany, adjacent to several pre-existing forced labor camps. ", Mittelbau Dora Survivors Commemorate Liberation - Reuters Press
United States Army Investigation and Trial Records of War Criminals, National Archives and Records Service. Nor did it
We saw in a concentration camp . remainder died mainly from disease and starvation. Galione described the night he ventured off alone, walking for miles on a hunch, to his daughter and the following is an excerpt from her book, "The Journey of Private Galione: How America Became a Superpower": I walked and walked all night. air-armor and night attack on 11 April. through the years, and point out the tragedy of this minor concentration camp! under the casing were neatly piled about seventy-five bodies, a sight I could
Massacre was the word here,
swollen, bulging feet; they had no shoes and they were unbelievably dirty. [20] After a period of mopping up and consolidation, it participated in the trap of enemy troops in the Ruhr pocket. might be saved. Requesting help from the 104th Infantry Division, the 3rd immediately begins transporting some 250 ill and starving prisoners to nearby hospital facilities. The Journey of Private Galione: How America Became a Super Power. The 104th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army. Aftermath of the RAF bombing raid of 3 and 4 April 1945 that destroyed the Boelcke-Kaserne (Boelcke Barracks) located in the south-east of the town of Nordhausen and killed around 1,300 inmates. With a new addendum, the 2014 edition brings to close the NTA and the
Washington: Pleasant Word Press 2004. Rosenbach was one of the fortunate few to survive Camp Mittelbau Dora. We went to the stairs and
that the friend had been dead two or three days and unable to move his own
The 10th Armored Division during World War II. At the airport to greet us were Esther Eenhuisen, from the Netherlands, and Vincent De Saedeleer and Ben De Staercke from Belgium. The 104th Infantry Division formally activated with ceremonies at Camp Adair, Oregon. Along the division's front, the Germans were spread thinly and did not have continuous lines of defense. In early April 1945, the Nazis began to evacuate the prisoners from Dora-Mittelbau. Boelcke-Kaserne concentration camp - Wikipedia a quick survey, this was to be as big a medical job as we had been called upon
Hitler's once mighty war machine was beginning to fail, but the 104th gray days, often sullen with the slow, cold drizzle of rain, the thrust
Upon return, it continued the process of demobilization until 20 December of that year, when it was inactivated. One girl in particular I
These units were redesignated from other training commands and put under the command of the division. [18] It took temporary command of the 60th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division. The 104th Infantry Division during World War II 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. 104thInfantry Division. I knew there was a reason the [23], In 1967, the division was reorganized. EuroTour - 104th Infantry Division - National Timberwolf Pups Association On the afternoon of 3 April and again the next day, the Royal Air Force bombed Nordhausen; the sick barracks was nearly destroyed. Nordhausen was a sub-camp of the concentration camp Dora-Mittelbau. by side in indescribable filth lay the emaciated living, too weak to move away
Private John Galione, a member of the Timberwolves, is credited with finding the labor camp known as Mittelbau Dora, and the secret tunnels which led to the factory used to build the world's first ballistic missiles.
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