Part II: The Liberators

Charles Froug
Dr. Froug was a medical officer with the advancing U.S. Army. He tells what they found when they happened upon Dachau concentration camp. This tape has graphic images and could be disturbing.
22 minutes

Richard Seibel
Col. Seibel was the highest-ranking U.S. Army officer to command a concentration camp after liberation. He stayed to restore order to Mauthausen (Austria), rescuing 18,000 persons interned there. This tape has graphic images and could be disturbing.
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington uses an audio clip from this tape in the elevators that all visitors use at the beginning of the tour.
19 minutes

Fred Long
As a medical corpsman, Fred was one of the first American GIs to enter Dachau. He drew a remarkable map, which is featured in the video and in “Prejudice and Memory.” He vividly describes conditions in the camp and talks of the traumatic effects on his own life. Fred died in 1999 in Dayton.
26 minutes

Donald Key
Donald, a young messenger with Patton’s Third Army, was at Buchenwald the day it was liberated. This video includes graphic photos.
21 minutes

Delbert Cooper
At the end of the war in 1945, Del helped liberate two camps in Austria, and captured an SS soldier. His unit supplied the camps with food confiscated from a German supply train. He reads from a letter to his wife, written a few days after these events, describing the appalling conditions.
30 minutes

Gabriel Vacca
A fighter pilot stationed near Weimar, Gabe was present at the liberation of nearby Buchenwald. He describes how German civilians were forced to ‘tour’ the camp to see the consequences of Nazi genocide. This video includes disturbing photos.
18 minutes

Bernard Mellman
Although he is Jewish, Bernie knew nothing about the death camps until his infantry unit stumbled upon Dachau a few hours after its liberation. He tells of the first efforts to save the lives of the surviving inmates.
22 minutes