American soldiers silently inspect some of the rail trucks loaded with dead which were found on the rail siding at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, on May 3, 1945. (AP Photo) [991 x 722]
Why do a few of them look to be smiling at such a horrific site?
sidewalkelegy
I imagine by the time those guys got to that point of that campaign they had seen so many dead that it meant virtually nothing. I imagine the Soviets felt similarly by the time they got to any of the camps they liberated.
Gallows humor is a funny thing among soldiers. I remember a story about WW1 soldiers at Gallipoli who had to bury one of their comrades in the wall of the trench. There were already many bodies buried so they couldn’t cover him well. A shell landed near and the dead man’s arm popped out of the wall of trench. It became a tradition to high-five the dead man’s hand on your way past.
I mean after intense combat for a long period of time a person is probably getting close to some variety of insanity. I don’t mean to insult anyone, and I’ve never seen it, but I just imagine that soldiers cope with it in ways civilians would find harsh or strange.
Nandy-bear
Why the fuck did I read that title, and still click to see the full pic.
![American soldiers silently inspect some of the rail trucks loaded with dead which were found on the rail siding at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, on May 3, 1945. (AP Photo) [991 x 722]](https://i.redd.it/io5khvz6ecz41.jpg)
IAmAChickenVegan
Why do a few of them look to be smiling at such a horrific site?
sidewalkelegy
I imagine by the time those guys got to that point of that campaign they had seen so many dead that it meant virtually nothing. I imagine the Soviets felt similarly by the time they got to any of the camps they liberated.
Gallows humor is a funny thing among soldiers. I remember a story about WW1 soldiers at Gallipoli who had to bury one of their comrades in the wall of the trench. There were already many bodies buried so they couldn’t cover him well. A shell landed near and the dead man’s arm popped out of the wall of trench. It became a tradition to high-five the dead man’s hand on your way past.
I mean after intense combat for a long period of time a person is probably getting close to some variety of insanity. I don’t mean to insult anyone, and I’ve never seen it, but I just imagine that soldiers cope with it in ways civilians would find harsh or strange.
Nandy-bear
Why the fuck did I read that title, and still click to see the full pic.