Photo allegedly showing execution of SS troops in a coal yard in the area of the Dachau concentration camp during its liberation. April 29, 1945 (U.S. Army photograph) [5192×3894]
> In 1989, Lt. Col. Sparks wrote an account of the role of the 45th Infantry Division in the liberation of Dachau. His description of what happened at the wall is as follows:
>
> As I watched, about fifty German troops were brought in from various directions. A machine gun squad from Company I was guarding the prisoners. After watching for a few minutes, I started for the confinement area (the concentration camp), after taking directions from one of my soldiers. After I had walked away for a short distance, I heard the machine gun guarding the prisoners open fire. I immediately ran back to the gun and kicked the gunner off the gun with my boot. I then grabbed him by the collar and said: “What the hell are you doing?” He was a young private about 19 years old (Private William C. Curtin) and was crying hysterically. His reply to me was: “Colonel, they were trying to get away.” I doubt that they were, but in any event he killed about twelve of the prisoners and wounded several more. I placed a noncom on the gun and headed towards the confinement area.
>
> In his 1989 account of the liberation of Dachau, Sparks wrote the following regarding the number of SS soldiers who were killed in the Dachau massacre:
>It was the foregoing incident which has given rise to wild claims in various publications that most or all of the German prisoners captured at Dachau were executed. Nothing could be further from the truth, The total number of German guards killed at Dachau during that day most certainly did not exceed fifty, with thirty probably being a more accurate figure.
essentially
official caption: Men on the ground in background feign death by falling as the guards fired a volley at the fleeing SS men. (157th Regt. 4/29/45)
MrTurrad
Is this what that scene in shutter island was based on? I assume this may have happened a lot as each of the camps was liberated but just curious if this was a outlier.
kweitzel
Lot of the bodies look like they’re living… there are two guys propped up on their elbows on the left looking toward the camera, another guy hunched over someone while doing something, a couple guys laying on their stomachs looking at each other with their heads up.
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here, but I’m not convinced that it’s an execution.
Edit: after reading the article, everything makes a lot more sense. They weren’t arranged there to be executed. The machine gunner watching them opened fire and claimed that ‘they were trying to get away’ while crying hysterically. He probably *tried* to execute them all but was stopped by an officer soon after he began shooting.
lambun
[Dachau liberation reprisals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_liberation_reprisals)
putlotioninbasket
The two guys looking back while laying next to all those bodies gives me chills.
isditregtignodiG
must’ve been a lot of rage flowing through their veins, or at least that’s what I imagine
ron_leflore
There’s a pretty detailed account of that day here:
https://www.scrapbookpages.com/dachau/FiringSquad.html
Here’s part of it:
> In 1989, Lt. Col. Sparks wrote an account of the role of the 45th Infantry Division in the liberation of Dachau. His description of what happened at the wall is as follows:
>
> As I watched, about fifty German troops were brought in from various directions. A machine gun squad from Company I was guarding the prisoners. After watching for a few minutes, I started for the confinement area (the concentration camp), after taking directions from one of my soldiers. After I had walked away for a short distance, I heard the machine gun guarding the prisoners open fire. I immediately ran back to the gun and kicked the gunner off the gun with my boot. I then grabbed him by the collar and said: “What the hell are you doing?” He was a young private about 19 years old (Private William C. Curtin) and was crying hysterically. His reply to me was: “Colonel, they were trying to get away.” I doubt that they were, but in any event he killed about twelve of the prisoners and wounded several more. I placed a noncom on the gun and headed towards the confinement area.
>
> In his 1989 account of the liberation of Dachau, Sparks wrote the following regarding the number of SS soldiers who were killed in the Dachau massacre:
>It was the foregoing incident which has given rise to wild claims in various publications that most or all of the German prisoners captured at Dachau were executed. Nothing could be further from the truth, The total number of German guards killed at Dachau during that day most certainly did not exceed fifty, with thirty probably being a more accurate figure.
essentially
official caption: Men on the ground in background feign death by falling as the guards fired a volley at the fleeing SS men. (157th Regt. 4/29/45)
MrTurrad
Is this what that scene in shutter island was based on? I assume this may have happened a lot as each of the camps was liberated but just curious if this was a outlier.
kweitzel
Lot of the bodies look like they’re living… there are two guys propped up on their elbows on the left looking toward the camera, another guy hunched over someone while doing something, a couple guys laying on their stomachs looking at each other with their heads up.
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here, but I’m not convinced that it’s an execution.
Edit: after reading the article, everything makes a lot more sense. They weren’t arranged there to be executed. The machine gunner watching them opened fire and claimed that ‘they were trying to get away’ while crying hysterically. He probably *tried* to execute them all but was stopped by an officer soon after he began shooting.