SS guards brutally mistreated the prisoners during the death marches. They shot prisoners who could not keep up, or who could no longer disembark from the trains or ships that were sometimes used during the forced evacuations. As Allied forces advanced into the heart of Germany they liberated thousands of prisoners from the death marches. They often required German civilians to view the exhumed bodies of those who had died during the marches.
An American soldier looks at the corpses of Polish, Russian, and Hungarian Jews found in the woods near Neunburg vorm Wald. The victims were prisoners from Flossenbürg who were shot near Neunburg while on a death march. Germany, April 29, 1945.
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The bodies of Jewish women exhumed from a mass grave near Volary. The victims died at the end of a death march from Helmbrechts, a subcamp of Flossenbürg. Germans were forced to exhume them in order to give the victims proper burial. Volary, Czechoslovakia, May 11, 1945.
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Under the supervision of American medics, German civilians file past the bodies of Jewish women exhumed from a mass grave in Volary. The victims died at the end of a death march from Helmbrechts, a subcamp of Flossenbürg. Germans were forced to exhume them in order to give the victims proper burial. Volary, Czechoslovakia, May 11, 1945.
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German civilians from Volary attend burial services for the Jewish women exhumed from a mass grave in the town. The victims died at the end of a death march from Helmbrechts, a subcamp of Flossenbürg. Germans were forced to exhume them in order to give the victims proper burial. Volary, Czechoslovakia, May 11, 1945.
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A US soldier stands among the corpses of prisoners exhumed from a mass grave in a ravine near Nammering. On April 19, 1945, a freight train with nearly 4,500 prisoners from Buchenwald pulled onto the railroad siding at Nammering. Hundreds of prisoners who had died on the train were buried in the mass grave along with the prisoners who were forced to carry the corpses to the ravine and were then shot. Germany, ca. May 6, 1945.
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Burned bodies of former prisoners of Rottleberode, a subcamp of Dora-Mittelbau, lie near the entrance to a barn that had been set on fire by SS troops while the prisoners were on a death march. Gardelegen, Germany, April 18, 1945.
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Three German mayors view the corpse of a prisoner burned alive in a barn by the SS while on a death march from Rottleberode, a subcamp of Dora-Mittelbau. Gardelegen, Germany, April 18, 1945.
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German civilians from Schwarzenfeld dig graves for the reburial of 140 Hungarian, Russian, and Polish Jews exhumed from a mass grave near the town. The victims died while on an evacuation transport from the Flossenbürg concentration camp. Schwarzenfeld, Germany, April 25, 1945.
Following the discovery of death march victims, US Army officers forced local Germans to view the scene of the crime and ordered the townspeople to give the victims a proper burial.
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US troops and German civilians from Neunburg vorm Wald attend a funeral service for Polish, Hungarian, and Russian Jews found in the forest near their town. The victims were shot by the SS while on a death march from Flossenbürg. Neunburg, Germany, April 29, 1945.
Following the discovery of death march victims, US Army officers forced local Germans to view the scene of the crime and ordered the townspeople to give the victims a proper burial.
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