Last edited Sat Apr 11, 2015, 07:45 PM - Edit history (2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/DachauLiberation/SoldiersKilled.html
According to Whitlock, the men of the 45th Infantry Division had been warned about the danger posed by German POWs by General George S. Patton, Jr., the Commander of the US Seventh Army, on June 27, 1943 just before their invasion of Sicily. Whitlock wrote:
"Patton cautioned the men to watch out for dirty tricks when it seemed a group of enemy soldiers wanted to surrender. A favorite tactic, the general said, was for a small group to suddenly drop their weapons and raise their hands or wave a white flag. When unsuspecting Americans moved into the open to take the enemy prisoner, the 'surrendering' troops would hit the dirt and their comrades, lying in wait, would spring up and mow down the exposed Americans. Patton warned the Thunderbirds to be on their guard for this sort of treachery and to show no mercy if the Germans or Italians attempted this trick. His words would have fateful repercussions."
The "fateful repercussions," that Whitlock was referring to, was the incident that happened at the liberation of Dachau when a young soldier of the 45th Infantry Division of the US Seventh Army opened fire on a group of Waffen-SS soldiers who had surrendered. He claimed that the surrendered soldiers had moved forward.
Dachau was also the location of a SS Army post, and it from that post the victims of the massacre came from, NOT the camp. The attached Slave Camp (Where prisoners were worked to death) was not liberated till AFTER the Massacre (but on the same day), but that has NOT stopped people from SAYING that massacre was because of American Soldiers seeing a death camp. The Russians had liberated several by that time in the war (most had been in Poland, including the larger ones) but US sources were still hinting that the reports of those camps were Soviet Propaganda (But do to the war it was only hinted and dismissed as such NO actual accusation of propaganda were made). Thus you have writers saying the Americans knew of the Death Camps, but such writers ignore the attitude of the time period to dismiss reports from Russia as Propaganda (But this had the effect of providing a cover story for an American War Crime for killing unarmed POWs is a war crime).
After I wrote the Above, down below Joe Chin Minh asked about the Camp Guards, but before I would answer he self deleted his post, but I do want to explain how the Camp Guards and the Waffen SS interacted during WWII:
Prior to WWII, Waffen SS would take turns being Concentration Camp Guards, but that ended by 1940. On the other hand both the Waffen SS and Camp Guards were recruited in the same recruitment offices (The German Regular Army did NOT take enlistees, all of Regular Army troops were drafted).
As WWII progressed the Camp guards became older, not only do to age, but the younger ones could transfer (or be transferred) the Waffen SS as troops were needed. Thus most of the Camp Guards by 1945 were in their 50s and had family in the area. Thus as the US Troops approached they just stayed at home, they did NOT go to work that day. If the Guards were on duty, they just left as the American neared the camp and went home themselves. The Prisoners did not know what to do so they stayed (Like most prisons, the prisoners operated the kitchens so what food was in the warehouse was prepared and waited to see what would happen). Thus the only SS troops in the area were members of a SS unit that had fallen back to that position from the front lines.
Now, I would NOT be surprised if the SS troops had been feed by the Prisoners, for that would have been part of the routine of the camp. i.e. Cook and feed the prisoners and then took some food to the recruitment centers as Waffen SS Soldiers had come and go from that camp all through the war. The prisoners had no place to go, and if they did it had to be on foot. Thus the Prisoners stayed in the Camp till the Americans showed up. Given Patton's standing orders, the huge number of civilians in a SS Camp would have put the Americans on high alert for any tricks like what Patton had warned them about. You hear of Soldiers hiding among Civilians, using the Civilians as Shields during the Korean war, but such reports are quite old, Genghis Khan is accused of using such tactics in China in the 1200s.
Given the Soldiers were probably only told it was a SS Camp, they would have been on edge. The Waffen SS soldiers just had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
= new reply since forum marked as read
