Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project
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Interviewer
Michael Hirsh
Publication Date
3-21-2022
Date
June 2008
Abstract
John W. Rheney, Jr. was a staff sergeant in the 104th Infantry Division, which liberated Nordhausen-Dora on April 11, 1945. When he got to the camp, another regiment had already liberated it, and the guards were gone. Inside the camp, there were stacks of corpses of people who had apparently starved to death. A few survivors approached the soldiers and hugged them, but Rheney could not speak their languages. He was only in the camp for a few hours and did not see the crematorium or the caves where the V-2 rockets were built. Rheney continues to work at a nearby military base and regularly attends his division's reunions.
Keywords
World War II (1939-1945), Holocaust (1939-1945), Concentration camps, Concentration camps--Liberation, Veterans, Genocide, Crimes against humanity, United States. Army. Infantry Division 104th, Nordhausen (Concentration camp)
Extent
00:15:24; 11 page transcript
Subject: geographic
Nordhausen (Thuringia, Germany)
Language
English
Digital Date
2022
Media Type
Oral histories
Format
Digital Only
Identifier
C65-00113
Recommended Citation
Rheney, John W. Jr., "John W. Rheney Jr. Oral History Interview" (2022). Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project. 100.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/concentration_OH/100
Rights Statement
