<< Previous | Displaying results 1-50 of 1269 for "Liberation" | Next >>
The first major Nazi camp was liberated by Allied troops in July, 1944. Learn more about liberation of camps towards the end of World War II.
Learn more about the end of Nazi tyranny in Europe and the liberation of camps and other sites of Nazi crimes. This article includes dates of liberation of some of the camps.
The liberation of concentration camps toward the end of the Holocaust revealed unspeakable conditions. Learn about liberators and what they confronted.
Learn about the death march of prisoners from the Sachsenhausen camp, liberation of the remaining prisoners, and postwar trials of camp staff.
Ravensbrück was the largest concentration camp for women in the German Reich. Learn about the last months of the Ravensbrück camp and the postwar trials of camp staff.
The Theresienstadt camp-ghetto existed from 1941 to 1945. Learn about its final weeks, liberation, and the postwar trials of SS commandants and other staff.
Dachau opened in March 1933 and was the first regular concentration camp to be established by the Nazi regime. The camp was liberated by American forces on April 29, 1945. As they approached the camp, troops encountered horrific evidence of Nazi a...
World War II veterans and their families continue to uncover extremely graphic
April 12, 1945. On this date, Canadian forces liberated prisoners at the Westerbork camp in the Netherlands.
April 4, 1945. On this date, US troops liberated Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp.
April 29, 1945. On this date, US Army divisions liberated approximately 32,000 prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp.
April 30, 1945. On this date, Soviet forces arrived at Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany.
May 4, 1945. On this date, the US Army liberated Gunskirchen, a subcamp of Mauthausen in Austria.
May 5, 1945. On this date, US troops liberated Mauthausen concentration camp. Days before, a group of prisoners took control of Mauthausen.
US troops march down the Champs Elysees in Paris following the Allied liberation of the city. Paris, France, August 29, 1944.
Army Signal Corps photographer Arnold E. Samuelson documented Allied military campaigns, Nazi crimes, and the plight of concentration camp prisoners.
Learn about J Malan Heslop, one of the first Allied photographers in the Army Signal Corps to document evidence of Nazi crimes.
In July 1944, Soviet forces liberated the Majdanek extermination camp. The Polish-Soviet Nazi Crimes Investigation Commission, established to document Nazi atrocities committed during the German occupation of Poland, ordered exhumations at Majdanek as part of its efforts to investigate Nazi mass killings in the camp. The commission later published its findings in Moscow on September 16, 1944, in Polish, Russian, English, and French.
The Dachau concentration camp, northwest of Munich, Germany, was the first regular concentration camp the Nazis established in 1933. About twelve years later, on April 29, 1945, US armed forces liberated the camp. There were about 30,000 starving prisoners in the camp at the time. Here, soldiers of the US Seventh Army document conditions in the camp. They also require German civilians to tour the camp and confront Nazi atrocities.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower and other American officers inspect conditions in the Ohrdruf concentration camp shortly after the liberation of the camp. As American forces had approached, SS camp guards shot the remaining prisoners before abandoning the camp. Confirmation of such atrocities prompted the US military to require Nazis and local German civilians to view the camps.
Many extremely graphic photographs taken at the time of liberation document crimes of the Nazi era. Learn about some of the most commonly reproduced photos.
The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by British forces on April 15, 1945. Approximately 50,000 people died at Bergen-Belsen during the camp's existence. When liberating troops entered the camp, they witnessed evidence of Nazi atrocitie...
The US army filmed the weak and emaciated survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany to document Nazi crimes against humanity. This film was shot shortly after the liberation of the camp in April 1945.
Photographs and film footage illustrating the liberation of Mauthausen and two of its subcamps, Gusen and Ebensee.
American soldiers and liberated prisoners at the main entrance of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Germany, May 1945.
View animated map of key events toward the end of WWII in Europe as Allied troops encountered concentration camps, mass graves, and other sites of Nazi crimes.
Flags of liberating divisions are presented during a ceremony at the Museum's Tribute to Holocaust Survivors: Reunion of a Special Family. This tribute was one of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's tenth anniversary events. Washington, DC, November 2003.
The Buchenwald camp was one of the largest concentration camps. The Nazis built it in 1937 in a wooded area northwest of Weimar in central Germany. US forces liberated the Buchenwald camp on April 11, 1945. When US troops entered the camp, they found more than 20,000 prisoners. This footage shows scenes that US cameramen filmed in the camp, survivors, and the arrival of Red Cross trucks.
After British soldiers liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, they forced the remaining SS guards to help bury the dead. Here, survivors of the camp taunt their former tormentors, who prepare to bury victims in a mass grave.
July 23, 1944. On this date, Soviet forces liberated the Lublin/Majdanek concentration camp in Poland.
April 11, 1945. On this date, Buchenwald prisoners stormed the watchtower and seized control of the camp. US forces liberated the camp the same day.
February 13, 1945. On this date, Soviet forces liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.
January 27, 1945. On this date, the Soviet army liberated approximately 7,000 prisoners in Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz.
April 15, 1945. On this date, the British army liberated approximately 60,000 prisoners at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
April 11, 1945. On this date, the US Army liberated the Dora-Mittelbau (Nordhausen) concentration camp in Germany.
April 23, 1945. On this date, US forces liberated the Flossenbürg camp in Germany.
Mauthausen concentration camp inmates with American troops after the liberation of the camp.
Liberator Vernon Tott (second from left) of the 84th Infantry was honored by some of the survivors he helped free from the Ahlem labor camp near Hanover, Germany. Tott's name was engraved on the Museum's Donor's Lounge wall with the inscription: "In honor of Vernon W. Tott, my liberator & hero." The ceremony in which Tott's name was unveiled came as a complete surprise to him. Washington, DC, November 2003.
Survivors move around between rows of barracks in the newly liberated Dachau concentration camp. Dachau, Germany, May 1945. This image is among the commonly reproduced and distributed images of liberation. These photographs provided powerful documentation of the crimes of the Nazi era.
View of a section of the barbed-wire fence and barracks at Auschwitz at the time of the liberation of the camp. Auschwitz, Poland, January 1945. On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz and liberated more than six thousand prisoners, most of whom were ill and dying.
Liberated prisoners at the Ebensee camp. Too weak to eat solid food, they drink a thin soup prepared for them by the US Army. Photograph taken by US Army Signal Corps photographer J Malan Heslop. Austria, May 8, 1945.
During the battle to liberate the French capital, a barricade is hastily built near the cathedral of Notre Dame. Paris, France, August 1944.
Soviet forces liberated the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in April 1945. In the camp, Soviet soldiers found this German edition of the Old and New Testaments on a dead prisoner, a Jehovah's Witness. The bible was sent to the prisoner's surviving family members.
US forces liberated the Dora-Mittelbau (Nordhausen) concentration camp in April 1945. Here, medics and soldiers of the US 3rd Armored Division evacuate sick and dying survivors of the camp.
After liberation by US troops, former prisoners wait in line for soup at the Gusen camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen concentration camp. Gusen, Austria, May 12, 1945.
We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of all donors.