A raumbild-verlag (stereocard) of the Stadion of Olympiade. This area was not badly damaged during the war, and was taken over in 1945 as the headquarters of the British military contingent in Berlin. Returned to German control in the mid-1990s, much of this area remains today as it did in 1936, still a sports center.
Stadion of Olympiade, Hous of German Sports, Berlin, Germany
Date:
1936
Description:
A raumbild-verlag (stereocard) of the Stadion of Olympiade, Hous of German sports. This area was not badly damaged during the war, and was taken over in 1945 as the headquarters of the British military contingent in Berlin. Returned to German control in the mid-1990s, much of this area remains today as it did in 1936, still a sports center.
Pile of Dead Prisoners in Dachau Concentration Camp, Dachau, Germany
Date:
1945
Description:
On April 29, 1945 Dachau was surrendered to the American Army by SS- Sturmscharfuhrer Heinrich Wicker. As U.S. troops neared the camp, they found more than 30 railroad cars filled with additional bodies brought to Dachau. Note the word "POLAK' is written on the chest of a dead Polish prisoner. Poles constituted the largest ethnic group in the Dachau camp during the war.
Dead Prisoners in Dachau Concentration Camp, Dachau, Germany
Date:
1945
Description:
Dachau opened in March 1933, and was the first concentration camp established by the Nazis in Germany. It served as a prototype and model for other Nazi concentration camps that followed. The prisoners in the photograph were mostly likely killed before the camp was liberated.
Deutsche Dunlop A.G. Tire and Rubber Factory In Ruins, Hanau, Germany
Date:
1945
Description:
Information included with the photograph,"Overall view showing the damage done by the RAF and the U.S. Eighth Air Force to the Deutsche Dunlop A.G. Tire and rubber factory at Hanau. The widespread destruction in this plant severely cut part of the German tire production for motor vehicles. This part of the plant ceased to produce after the last air attack that left it the mass of twisted girders and rubble shown." See the back of the original photograph for more information.
Information included with the photograph, "Troops of the Third U.S. Army crouch low as enemy fire opens during their crossings of the Rhine in assault boats at Oberwesel, Germany. The Army first forged the river March 22, 1945." Note the label "me" on the photograph most likely points to Raymond Young, infantryman and combat photographer.
Destruction of Dachau By U.S. Troops, Dachau, Germany
Date:
1945/ Spring
Description:
Soldiers walk throughout the streets of Dachau. Buildings were demolished during bombings and the United States Army assaults, followed by the liberation of prisoners held in Dachau concentration camp.
Information on back of photo reads: "American Sergeant Vivian L. Rees of Wingfield, Iowa, lights the cigar of Soviet Lieutenant Sergi Biernikov during the visit Red Army Day February 25, 1945, to liberated Soviet prisoners of war by U.S. Army Air Forces personnel who had served in the U.S.S.R. The American airmen collected tobacco and candy at their base in England as a gift to the Russians, also stationed in the British Isles."
Information included on back: "Two Aged German women with civilian escorts are guided by a Ninth U.S. Army soldier (right, foreground) to Allied Military Government authorities in Erkelenz, Germany, for registration February 27, 1945, following capture of the town by Ninth Army forces driving toward the Rhine. Erkelenz is east of the Roer River, nine miles southwest of Munchen-Gladbach." (U.S. Signal Corps).
Battered Bamberg Cleared of Enemy, Bamberg, Germany
Date:
1945/04/14
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "Civilians move about on a street in a shell-torn Bamberg, Germany, after occupation of the city by troops of the Seventh U.S. Army April 14, 1945. Enemy forces withdrew from the medieval city, 30 miles northwest of Nurenberg, after a short fight. The retreating Nazis blew up the bridge across the Main and Renitz Rivers, leaving Bamberg an island."
Corpses of Prisoners at Dachau Concentration Camp, Dachau, Germany
Date:
1945/05/04
Description:
Information on the back of the photgraph, "Visiting American newspaper and magazine men view rows of corpses of prisoners at the German concentration camp at Dachau. About 200 bodies were piled here."
Information on back of photo reads: "In Stalag 326 - 6K were nine thousand prisoners - all Russians. The U.S. 9th Army liberated them when they broke through to Eseslheide, s.east of Munster and n.east of Hamm. When the Russians realized that they were free they went wild. The Russians told us that 30,000 of their comrades died at the camp through privations, and 70 died of starvation each day." Picture shows: "American soldiers "chained" at Stalag 326 - 6K by Russians who were overjoyed when they found that they were free."
Abandoned Nazi Vehicles Fill Paris Courtyards, Paris, France
Date:
ca. 1944
Description:
Information back of photo reads: "Looking down on some of the wrecked and abandoned Nazi equipment left in the courtyard of the City Hall in the 10th District of Paris after the French capital's liberation August 25, 1944. The Nazis used the building as a telephone center and fortress. Their resistance was strong here and many members of the Maquis were massacred and buried in the courtyard."
A large port and industrial center that includied u-boat pens and oil refineries was bombed throughout the war. An air attack in July 1942 created one of the largest firestorms of WW II, killing 42,600 civilians, wounding 37,000 and practically destroying the city.
Countless Dead Bodies in Dachau Concentration Camp
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Over its twelve years as a concentration camp, the Dachau administration recorded the intake of 206,206 prisoners and 31,951 deaths. This number varies according to the source but the totals are overwhelming regardless. Photographic evidence of the Holocaust, such as this, extinguished claims that reports of horrific Nazi Death Camps was Allied propaganda.
Dead Prisoners in Dachau Concentration Camp, Dachau, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
On April 29, 1945 Dachau was surrendered to the American Army by SS- Sturmscharfuhrer Heinrich Wicker. As U.S. troops neared the camp, they found more than 30 railroad cars filled with additional bodies brought to Dachau.
General Eisenhower and Allied Officer Shaking Hands
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces in the European Theater during World War II, is greeted by an unidentified officer. Eisenhower toured several Nazi Concentration Camps immediately after they were liberated in order to personally testify to the heinous Nazi war crimes.
German Rail Center Blasted By Allied Air Attacks, Heilbronh, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information with the photograph, "A lone soldier of the 100th Infantry Division, Seventh U.S. Army, walks through the ruins of Heilbronn, Germany, cleared of the enemy April 12, 1945. Forty miles southeast of Mannheim and the Rhino, Heilbronn, an important road and rail center was blasted by Allied Planes. U.S. Signal Corps Photo."
Information included with the photograph,"Debris spilled from bombed buildings of Mainz fills a street of the ancient Rhine River city captured by troops of the 80th Division, Third u.S. Army, March 23, 1945. Mainz, birthplace of Johannes Gutemberg, credited with the development of printing in the 15th Century, was a strategic Nazi manufacturing center of machinery and chemicals."
U.S. Army troops pushed through German resistance in the Spring of 1945. Many towns such as this were bombed from the air and assualted by ground forces.
Dead Horses and Wrecked Vehicles of German Convoy, Lus, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information included on back: "Dead horses and wrecked vehicles of German convoy are strewn along road in vicinity of Lus, Germany. Following attack on convoy by American Dive Bombers. Germans were trying to escape from encirclement by troops of the 3rd and 7th U.S. Armies." (U.S. Signal Corps).
U.S. Bombs and Shells Leave German Town in Ruins, Duren, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Part of the information included on back: "German town near Duren on the Roer River, important junction point of the road leading to Cologne and the Rhine lies shell-wrecked and bombed to ruins February 21, 1945 as U.S. troops advanced deeper into Germany."(U.S. Signal Corps).
Part of information included on back: "A knocked-out American tank stands behind a small, leveled building in captured Heilbronn. German industrial city which was virtually demolished prior to its occupation . . ." (U.S. Signal Corps).
Blasted Gun in Snow Swept Belgium; Manhay, Belgium
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information included on back: "A wrecked 105mm gun stands by the side of a road near Manhay, Belgium, where troops of the 83rd U.S. Infantry Division are advancing against the northern flank of the Nazi wedge. Manhay was wrested from enemy control December 28, 1944, by Allied forces driving toward the German St. Vith-Laroche supply road which was severed in several places by January 8, 1945, when 15 miles of the vital highway was under U.S. and British control. The Germans were thus left with only one major supply highway into their salient." (U.S. Signal Corps).
German Girls in Captured Town, Rittersdorf, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information included on back: "Two young women of captured Rittersdorf, Germany, step over an abandoned Nazi rifle as they carry water in the Reich town, seized by troops of the Third U.S. Army February 26, 1945. The town was cleared by American soldiers driving to Bitburg, last important German road center west of the Rhine in the Third Army battle sector."
Soldiers Taking Cover During Battle of Hurtgen Forest Near Belgian-German Border
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
A series of intense battles were fought here between the U.S. and German force from 1944/09/19 to 1945/02/10, over barely 50 sq mi. east of the Belgian–German border.
SAAR Town Destoryed By U.S. Advance, Zweibrucken, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of picture is torn, but partial info reads: "This is a scene in Zweibrucken, hammered by Allied air and U.S. artillery attacks before Seventh U.S. Army troops captured the town March 20, 1945."
Belgian Civilian Moves Through Rubble, Laroche, Belgium
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of picture reads: "A civilian picks his way through the rubble littering the streets of Laroche, Belgium, formerly an important enemy communications center on the northern flank of the Ardonnes Salient. Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force announced January 12, 1945, that Allied troops had taken the Belgian town. Only a little over a month after the launching of the unsuccessful Nazi counter-thrust December 16, 1944, front lone correspondents made it clear by midnight January 22, 1945, that the Battle of the Ardonnes was practically over."
Caption on back of photo reads: "German civilians from the small farming community of Tenholz are received by an American soldier in a shattered house serving as a reception center in Lovenich. The 102nd Infantry Division of the Ninth U.S. Army captured Lovenich February 25, 1945."
