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This Day in History: Dachau Liberated

On this day in 1945, the 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions liberate Dachau. The notorious concentration camp had then been in existence for more than a decade.

By this point in 1945, Allied forces were pushing deeper and deeper into Germany. The American infantry divisions working their way toward Munich knew that there was a concentration camp in the area, but that was about all they knew.

“Up until April 29, 1945,” Lt. Jack Westbrook would later explain, “the majority of us in my unit were not aware of the Nazi efforts to exterminate the Jews—certainly not its scope, nor its effect on the world; and certainly none of us were aware of the Dachau Concentration Camp.”