Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project
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Interviewer
Michael Hirsh
Publication Date
March 2022
Date
December 2007
Abstract
Russel R. Weiskircher was a sergeant in the 45th Infantry Division, which liberated Dachau on April 29, 1945. His battalion was en route to Munich when they received an order diverting them to Dachau, where they were to enter the camp and take it over. The first thing they encountered was a train with thousands of corpses of prisoners from Buchenwald. Weiskircher went through the camp, seeing the gas chamber and crematorium, and witnessed Colonel Felix Sparks' confrontation with the 42nd Infantry Division's General Henning Linden, as well as the incident where soldiers from the 45th killed several German guards. He was in the camp for two days, and came back several times while on occupation duty. Weiskircher began speaking publicly about Dachau in 1946, as soon as he returned home, and is a member of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.
Keywords
World War II (1939-1945), Holocaust (1939-1945), Concentration camps, Concentration camps--Liberation, Veterans, Genocide, Crimes against humanity, United States. Army. Infantry Division 45th, Dachau (Concentration camp), Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
Extent
01:49:50; 57 page transcript
Subject: geographic
Dachau (Germany); Munich (Germany); Weimar (Germany)
Language
English
Digital Date
2022
Media Type
Oral histories
Format
Digital Only
Identifier
C65-00145
Recommended Citation
Weiskircher, Russel R., "Dr. Russel R. Weiskircher Oral History Interview" (2022). Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project. 127.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/concentration_OH/127
Rights Statement
