of the history of the 104th Infantry Division & to sign our Guestbook. The Liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps - WWII Memorial. Friends for Jewish victims who were on the bottom of the insane Nazi scale of values. building, and would I please bring aid to them. The 104th Infantry Division during World War II They are Willy F. James Jr., for scouting German positions while being pinned down by machine gun fire,[39] and Cecil H. Bolton, who led a company of men on the attack despite wounds from a mortar shell. These units were redesignated from other training commands and put under the command of the division. [15] The division then organized and assembled at Manche, France before heading into combat.[16]. We went downstairs into a filth indescribable, 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. (Accessed Oct. 22, 2009). 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. captured Wehrmacht vehicles and even barnyard carts supplementing more many regarded this information as rumor. The war-hardened soldiers of the 104th had seen the worst in humanity. seventy-five but was only forty-five. In addition, two soldiers from this division were awarded the Medal of Honor for their service in combat. This website was 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. You are invited to read the rest in the camp had been worked, beaten and forced at top speed until they could forty-eight smaller tunnels. As the 104th advanced into Thuringia, the unit overran Nordhausen and the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp on April 11, 1945. The figure of 3,000 does not include the 2,250 sick and dying prisoners who were sent on an "annihilation transport" to. Angela Fiederman, a staff member at the Mittelbau Dora memorial site stated: Until the spring of 1944 the prisoners lived underground. (5), August of 1943 saw the arrival of first prisoners at camp Mittelbau Dora. Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp Main telephone: 202.488.0400 Approximately 60,000 prisoners from 21 nations (mostly Russians, Poles, and French) passed through Mittelbau Dora. I was accosted by a less emaciated prisoner who asked This is the story of the By the end of World War II, many soldiers had witnessed the The Timberwolf division made contact with the advancing Soviet armed forces at the end of the month. The division was instead centered on three infantry regiments; the 413th,[9] the 414th,[9] and 415th Infantry Regiments. Eibelshausen appeared and were soon overrun. Photographs and newsreel footage of the camp were reported internationally and made Nordhausen notorious in many parts of the world. occurred. A million or more Armenian lives destroyed at the whim of those who ruled the old Turkish Ottoman Empire. the ground awaiting burial I asked myself, 'Is this what is meant by genocide? A member of the 104th Infantry Division - known as the Timberwolves - Jack and his causes including starvation, fatigue and execution. factory. camp liberation, and seeing the unspeakable atrocities committed by the Nazis. Each Timberwolf can read between the lines - 104infdiv.org Speed would save lives, so we fell into a day of evacuation, (13) "United States of America v. Kurt Andrae et al. We arrived in Amsterdam, Thursday, May 2nd, at Schiphol Airport ready to complete our journey following the footsteps of the 104th Timberwolf Infantry Division as they fought through Europe during WWII in 1944 and 1945. with the 3rd Armored Division for a rapid advance of an eventual 375-mile Shephard, Ben. if anyone spoke French. The columnist regales the Timberwolves in the following manner: They had been engaged in six months and eighteen days of unceasing front-line combat, during which they had spearheaded five major offensive operations. [26] Meanwhile, the 3rd Brigade, 104th Division,[27] as well as the 4th Brigade, 104th Division both activated at Fort Lawton, Washington. The History of the 104th Infantry DivisionBy Leo Hoegh & Howard J. Doyle, Sixty-eight years after the original publication of this history, the National Timberwolf Pups Association [21] The division then crossed the Saale River and took Halle in a bitter five-day struggle from 15 to 19 April. among those who can't forget: "Nordhausen was to provide a ghastly traumatic gruesome sights at Nordhausen upon the men of the 104th: "For days and weeks, even months afterwards, the [14], Boelcke-Kaserne housed the largest percentage of Jews in the Mittelbau-Dora complex, except for one labor subcamp for Jewish women. - showing him the first kind act in years. The 104th Timberwolf Infantry Division has held a reunion for the past 69 years, and will meet again this year at a celebration . The Germans had been using the underground factory to build V2 rockets. We went to the stairs and Along the division's front, the Germans were spread thinly and did not have continuous lines of defense. of maneuver and bold night attacks and teamwork were outstanding and held casualties down to 1445 killed, 4801 wounded, 111 missing in action, for a total of 6357.(14). . Breaking out of the Remagen Bridgehead on 25 March, This page last updated: 6 October, 20101999 National Timberwolf AssociationQuestions? African American Soldiers during World War II, Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. Initially of the pile; they had been struggling for five or six days to get out but the Boelcke-Kaserne concentration camp - Wikipedia Liberators United States Holocaust Memorial Museum No one else was tried for crimes committed at the subcamp. The 4th Brigade, 104th Division is an infantry brigade of the United States Army. http://www.104infdiv.org/concamp.htm (accessed Oct. 10, 2009). 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. It was originally a subcamp of Buchenwald. From the 104th Training Division (LT) Commander medical resources of the division and from other units did all possible for the My legs were tired, weak, and the wound in my leg was raw. [17] The 3rd Armored Division continued eastward and was replaced on the morning of 12 April by the 104th Infantry Division. From 1946 until 2008, it was part of the United States Army Reserve. It was located inside a former Luftwaffe barracks complex in Nordhausen, Thuringia, Germany, adjacent to several pre-existing forced labor camps. terrible evidence of atrocity. reaching for the hands of their liberators as they shed their tears. Liberation of Achtmaal by the 415th Regiment of the 104th Inf.Div. This terror weapon of little military [8] The division was reorganized specifically as a training division in 1959. [20], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}512930.1N 104831.0E / 51.491694N 10.808611E / 51.491694; 10.808611, "Nordhausen concentration camp" redirects here. any serious impressions at the moment. [32] In 2005, the Base Realignment and Closure suggestions included the closure of the Vancouver Barracks, and the 104th Division was subsequently relocated to Fort Lewis, Washington. Every so often, the floor would be hosed down in order to clean out the excrement. been brought up, as have virtually all first and second generation Americans of acquitted.(13). But you know, when you are young, you can take an awful lot. was officially formed by the descendants of the Timberwolves, and is dedicated to continuing the traditions set forth by their fathers and maintaining the legacy of the 104th Infantry Timberwolf Division. The Dora-Mittelbau (also known as Dora-Nordhausen or Nordhausen) camp was established in central Germany near the southern Harz Mountains, north of the town of Nordhausen. London: Jonathan Cape, 2005. [4][7], On 2 April, 3,000 prisoners were transported to the Mittelbau main camp and to Ellrich, a subcamp of Mittelbau. allowed to leave the camp and when they became too weak to work, they were In the final six months of World War II, the 104th Division "The Frontier Division" launched a series of night attacks against German troops while equipped with only empty rifles, bayonets, and grenades, slicing and exploding their way through enemy lines on the drive to Berlin. His dozen or so photos from Mittelbau-Dora show rows of emaciated corpses in brutal clarity (inexplicably,. death had overtaken them, but some were stacked like cordwood under stairways. [1] The death rate was so high that a special work detail was formed to move the corpses. by the hungry and desperate enemy, continued as tongue-twisting towns and ", "Everything that is now in space had its origins The liberation of Camp Mittelbau Dora provided the [23] In 1961, the division was relocated to Vancouver Barracks, Washington. Upon return, it continued the process of demobilization until 20 December of that year, when it was inactivated. Email the Webmaster. never erase from memories. (15) National Timberwolf Association, "Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp," 104th Infantry Division, http://www.104infdiv.org/concamp.htm (accessed Oct. 10, 2009). accompanied by a horrible dead-rot stench. The Timberwolves were then assigned to Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group under the British I Corps, within the First Canadian Army, along with the U.S. 7th Armored Division, in order to clear out the Scheldt Estuary and open the port of Antwerp. After fierce fighting in the Ruhr pocket, it advanced into central Germany and took the Prussian university town of Halle on April 19. Boelcke-Kaserne concentration camp (transl. being eaten away by diarrhea and malnutrition. It must be noted that although Mittelbau Dora has been listed as a non-Jewish camp; the The Timberwolf division made contact with the advancing Soviet armed forces at the end of the month. [17], The prisoners in the worst critical condition were taken to the 51st Field Hospital. More than 3,000 prisoners were forced into an area of only 1,800 square metres (19,000sqft). In addition to burying the dead, the Allied forces attempted to help and comfort the survivors with food, clothing, and medical assistance. Galione-Nahas, Mary. (3) Camp Mittelbau Dora was established After 65 years In the weeks and months that followed, further inmate transports arrived from Buchenwald almost daily. abandoned to die and their bodies burned at the crematorium within the grounds. the Americans fought into Nordhausen. I followed the trains all the way down, for miles, and found a train car filled with dead Staring at the human debris on camp. [13], The 104th Infantry Division sailed for the Western Front on 27 August 1944. Was this also the fate of the grandparents, uncles, and aunts I had never known?' The 104th repulsed heavy attacks near Medebach and captured Paderborn on 1 April 1945. Division, to recognize the contribution of the 34,000 men who proudly wore the Timberwolf . That's how I knew I had found something "big" that the Nazis were trying to keep secret. horrors of war, but nothing could prepare them for what they would encounter upon liberating the concentration camps Hitler had created with the goal of exterminating those "unworthy of life". Hitler's once mighty war 104thInfantry Division. The Timberwolves knew they were there to help liberate the world from tyranny, of course, but personal hatred usually was not present. The 104th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army. patients, set up improvised hospital wards, and feed many mouths without help. So under the leadership of Colonel Jones and Chaplain Steinbeck, who spoke The boot kept digging in when I saw There was also a Gestapo-run Sonderlager ("special camp"), and other forced labor camps nearby, but these were not part of the Mittelbau-Dora complex. He had gone as far as possible to escape the fury of war when TO ORDER CONTACT THE WEBMASTER 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 Under the supervision of the US First Army, German civilians from Nordhausen carry victims of the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp to mass graves. Dying on the second floor were, upon later count, The Nor did it The width of their front was approximately 8,000 yards. Two miles northwest of Nordhausen a huge underground [1] The division was assigned to III Corps of the Ninth United States Army, part of the Twelfth United States Army Group. "Survivors of V2 Nazi Slave Camp Mark Liberation." When the first American GI's arrived in the . Several people who served with the 104th Infantry Division later went on to achieve notability for various reasons. The article recounts the heroic feats of the 104th as if recapping a college football game. detestable living conditions. weight of the other bodies piled on them had been too much for their starved, National Timberwolf Association. there were no living beings; only the distorted dead. . generally speaking, there was no special hatred of the enemy. The known?'. Thousands were killed during death marches under horrendous conditions. machine was crumbling, but counter attacks and stubborn pockets of resistance, We saw those on a bank who had been cut down by machine guns With care, he was lifted upon a litter and taken to our waiting For the next two days, the Timberwolves pursued enemy remnants north to the Meuse. In closing, a quote from Leon Karalokian of the 104th Signal they worked several days carrying litter cases and collecting corpses by hand. 104th Infantry Regiment (United States) - Wikipedia Recognition as a Liberating Unit All categories. 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. The V-2 was worse and more They died like flies.(9). heap of ashes each day. [38] NFL Player Bob Shaw also served with the 104th and was awarded the Bronze Star during World War II. "Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp." [2] Populated mostly with officers through the Reserve Officers Training Corps from colleges and universities in its allotted states, the division remained basically an officer cadre with few enlisted men, and would not see significant duty until World War II.[8]. He lay dust-covered, where he had nearly [15] By 7 November, the fighting in the Netherlands cost the Timberwolves 1,426 casualties, including 313 killed and 103 missing. the near skeletonized to the newly dead. about twenty-five men or half-men. I knew there was a reason the [19] Since 1974, there has been a memorial at the site. 8 September, 1944.). The SS was in charge of the [8] 1st Brigade took on basic combat training, while 3rd Brigade undertook combat support training, 4th Brigade conducted combat service support training. trial commenced on August 7, 1947 at the Dachau internment camp against those The 5th Brigade, 104th Division was activated at Salt Lake City, Utah. When my great-uncle liberated a Nazi concentration camp In the June-July His last step had taken him to the edge [19] During the Battle of the Bulge, the 104th actively defended its sector near Duren and Merken (in German only) from 15 December 1944 to 22 February 1945. 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. high-explosive bomb, put into operation a week after D-Day. The 'Nightfighters' attacked Nazis with empty rifles and grenades fanatical inhuman Nazi machine. Forty percent of the prisoners were Polish, of whom most were thought to be Jews. But when I started to turn around, something empowering came over me. the now familiar striped uniforms, bodies shrunken, white faces blood drained, The overall outlook changed to one of personal hatred and loathing of anyone wearing the German uniform.(12). [5] Assigned to the division were the 207th and 208th Infantry Brigades, containing the 413th, 414th, 415th, and 416th Infantry Regiments. 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. 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. [14] A coordinated attack over the Mark River at Standdaarbuiten on 2 November established a bridgehead and the rest of the division crossed the river. particularly sadistic attention from the SS Troopers. Washington, DC 20024-2126 Meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Henry Morgenthau Jr. Czech Family Camp at Auschwitz Liquidated, Liquidation of Gypsy Family Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Allied Troops Encounter Natzweiler-Struthof, Himmler Orders Demolition of Auschwitz Gas Chambers and Crematoria, US Troops Capture Ludendorff Railroad Bridge at Remagen, Evacuation of Prisoners from Sachsenhausen, Page 1 of Letter from US Soldier Aaron Eiferman, US Prosecutor Jackson Delivers Opening Statement to International Military Tribunal, New Directive on Immigrant Visas to the US, Article The Holocaust and World War II: Key Dates, Article Recognition of US Liberating Army Units. [8] After the arrival of 3,500 emaciated and ill prisoners from Gross-Rosen in mid-February, the SS decided to use the barracks compound to house prisoners who were no longer able to work,[7] since Dora had no gas chamber and transports to Bergen-Belsen could not be arranged. This monument was erected and dedicated on 16 April 2002 in Halle, Germany on the 57th Anniversary of the day that Major General Terry de la Mesa Allen, Commanding General, 104th Infantry Division (US Army), met German Count Felix von Luckner.