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The Death Marches and the Liberators. Death Marches. Winter of 1944/45, Germans knew war was lost Tried to evacuate the death camps Wanted to conceal the evidence Prisoners were forced to march towards Germany in the dead of winter. Death Marches.
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Death Marches • Winter of 1944/45, Germans knew war was lost • Tried to evacuate the death camps • Wanted to conceal the evidence • Prisoners were forced to march towards Germany in the dead of winter
Death Marches • Jan. 1945, just hours before the Red army arrives at Auschwitz, prisoners were marched to Wodzislaw • Anyone who lagged behind was shot • Many shot for no reason
Death Marches • 59 different marches from Nazi concentration camps during final winter of Nazi domination • Listen to a survivor tell about the death marches
Liberation • Soviet soldiers were first to enter a concentration camp • Majdanek • SS tried to hide the evidence • Soldiers shocked by what they saw • Press coverage was intense • Was dismissed as Communist propaganda
Soviets Enter Auschwitz • January 27, 1945, Soviet forces entered Auschwitz • Listen to Sam Itzkowitz story of liberation from Auschwitz
British liberate Bergen-Belsen • April 15, 1945- British liberate Bergen-Belsen • Had typhus epidemic • Conditions were horrific
British liberate Bergen-Belsen • Camp had to be burned • German citizens brought in to tour the camp • The films the British took were broadcast throughout the world.
Americans Liberate Buchenwald • April 11, 1945- Americans liberate Buchenwald
Americans Liberate Dachau • April 29, 1945, Americans liberate Dachau
Last Camps Liberated • The last camps encountered by the Americans were Mauthausen and Gusen on May 5, 1945. • 3 days later, the war was over • Army begins the intense battle to bring the survivors back to life