<< Previous | Displaying results 51-100 of 1269 for "Liberation" | Next >>
Jubilation over the liberation of Paris: US troops parade along the Champs-Elysees and French civilians celebrate. General Charles de Gaulle and General Omar Bradley review the troops.
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 that time. The film seen here was edited from original footage shot by Allied cameramen as liberating troops entered Dachau. It was discovered in the archives of the Imperial War Museum in 1984 and was never completed.
After Italy's armistice with the Allies in September 1943, the Italian army disintegrated. The country was divided between German forces holding the northern and central regions (including Rome) and Allied forces in the south. After nine months of bitter combat, Allied forces—specifically the US Fifth Army—liberated Rome in June 1944. This footage shows scenes of celebration as troops move through Rome. It ends with a prayer by Pius XII (pope, 1939–1958).
Soviet and Polish prisoners with disabilities stand in front of a tank of the 11th Armored Division, US Third Army. This photograph was taken at the Mauthausen concentration camp immediately after liberation. Austria, May 5–7, 1945.
As Allied forces approached Germany in late 1944 and early 1945, Bergen-Belsen became a collection camp for tens of thousands of prisoners evacuated from camps near the front. Thousands of these prisoners died due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and lack of adequate food and shelter. On April 15, 1945, British soldiers entered Bergen-Belsen. They found 60,000 prisoners in the camp, most in a critical condition. This footage shows Allied cameramen filming the condition of the prisoners and the…
Prisoners at the time of liberation of the Ebensee camp, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. This photograph was taken by US Army Signal Corps photographer Arnold E. Samuelson. Austria, May 7, 1945.
This film footage is excerpted from documentary film titled "Mauthausen Concentration Camp," showing footage from both Mauthausen and the nearby Gusen camp. Filmed by US cameramen, the footage opens with a broad view of buildings in the Gusen camp. Excerpts that follow show scenes in the camps, American care of the liberated prisoners, and Austrian civilians loading bodies of victims onto carts for burial.
Liberated inmates of the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp, located near Nordhausen, view an area where camouflaged V-1 and V-2 rocket parts were stored. Germany, after April 11, 1945.
US forces under the command of General Omar Bradley reached the Ebensee forced-labor camp in Austria in early May 1945. The Germans had built Ebensee at the foot of the Austrian Alps as part of the Mauthausen system of camps. The Nazis employed Ebensee prisoners as forced laborers during the construction of an underground rocket factory. Thousands died from the harsh conditions and back-breaking labor.
Upon arrival in the Auschwitz camp, victims were forced to hand over all their belongings. Inmates' belongings were routinely packed and shipped to Germany for distribution to civilians or use by German industry. The Auschwitz camp was liberated in January 1945. This Soviet military footage shows civilians and Soviet soldiers sifting through possessions of people deported to the Auschwitz killing center.
As Allied troops moved across Europe against Nazi Germany in 1944 and 1945, they encountered concentration camps, mass graves, and other sites of Nazi crimes. Learn more
View of Auschwitz-Birkenau under a blanket of snow immediately after the liberation. Auschwitz, Poland, January 1945.
Soon after liberation, women camp survivors prepare food near piles of dead bodies. Bergen-Belsen, Germany, after April 15, 1945.
View of a section of the newly liberated Dachau concentration camp as seen through the barbed-wire fence. Dachau, Germany, May 1945.
Survivors in Buchenwald just after liberation. Troops of the US 6th Armored Division entered Buchenwald on April 11, and troops of the 80th Infantry arrived on April 12. Buchenwald, Germany, photograph taken ca. April 11, 1945.
Soviet military footage showing children who were liberated at Auschwitz by the Soviet army in January 1945.
A US soldier with liberated prisoners of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Austria, May 1945.
Men of the 2nd French Armored Division attack the Chamber of Deputies, one of the last German stongholds, during the battle to liberate the French capital. Paris, France, August 1944.
The Mauthausen concentration camp was established shortly after the German annexation of Austria (1938). Prisoners in the camp were forced to perform crushing labor in a nearby stone quarry and, later, to construct subterranean tunnels for rocket assembly factories. US forces liberated the camp in May 1945. In this footage, starving survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp eat soup and scramble for potatoes.
Flags of US Army liberating divisions on display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.
During an inspection by US Army chaplains of the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp, G. Bromley Oxnam (right) views a demonstration of how prisoners were tortured in Buchenwald. Oxnam was the Methodist bishop of New York and President of the Federated Council of Churches of Christ in America. Buchenwald, Germany, April 27, 1945.
George was liberated by the American forces in May 1945. He had spent three years during the war in ten different concentration camps. In 1945 he was in the Woebbelin camp in Germany. After liberation, he spent over two years in various displaced persons camps. George immigrated to the United States in October 1947.
Forced laborers inside barracks soon after the liberation of Kaufering IV, part of a network of Dachau subcamps. Landsberg-Kaufering, Germany, 1945.
Soviet troops entered the Auschwitz killing center in January 1945 and liberated thousands of sick and exhausted prisoners. This Soviet military footage was filmed shortly after the camp was liberated. It shows Soviet doctors examining victims of sterilization, poisonous injection, and skin graft experiments.
The Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. When Makow was occupied, Sam fled to Soviet territory. He returned to Makow for provisions, but was forced to remain in the ghetto. In 1942, he was deported to Auschwitz. As the Soviet army advanced in 1944, Sam and other prisoners were sent to camps in Germany. The inmates were put on a death march early in 1945. American forces liberated Sam after he escaped during a bombing raid.
View of watchtower and fence at the Majdanek camp, after liberation. Poland, after July 22, 1944.
View of the furnaces remaining in the Majdanek camp by the time of liberation. The Germans had attempted to destroy the building as Soviet forces advanced in 1944. Majdanek, Poland, after July 22, 1944.
Dallas Peyton of Tucson, Arizona, was a member of the 70th Armored Infantry. In 1945, with other liberating troops, he entered the Dachau camp and encountered survivors and evidence of atrocities.
GI Edward S. Weiss, a resident of Gaithersburg, Maryland, was at the Dachau concentration camp shortly after its liberation.
Thomas's family moved to Zilina in 1938. As the Slovak Hlinka Guard increased its harassment of Jews, the family decided to leave. Thomas and his family ultimately entered Poland, but the German invasion in September 1939 prevented them from leaving for Great Britain. The family ended up in Kielce, where a ghetto was established in April 1941. When the Kielce ghetto was liquidated in August 1942, Thomas and his family avoided the deportations to Treblinka that occurred in the same month. They were sent…
Soon after liberation, camp survivors eat near scattered corpses. Bergen-Belsen, Germany, after April 15, 1945.
US General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Troy Middleton, commanding general of the XVIII Corps, Third US Army, tour the newly liberated Ohrdruf concentration camp. Ohrdruf, Germany, April 12, 1945.
Charles Torluccio is a veteran of the 11th Armored Division. During the invasion of German-held Austria, in May 1945 the 11th Armored (the "Thunderbolt" division) overran two of the largest Nazi concentration camps in the country: Mauthausen and Gusen.
The Germans occupied Kolo in 1939. In 1942 Alan was deported to the Lodz ghetto where he worked in food distribution. He took food each day to Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, chairman of the Jewish council. In 1944 Alan was forced to unload trainloads of coal and munitions in Czestochowa. In 1945 he was sent to the Dora-Mittelbau camp. As the Soviet army advanced, the inmates were transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where British forces liberated them in April.
Soon after liberation, camp survivors walk amidst dead bodies. Bergen-Belsen, Germany, after April 15, 1945.
View of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after the liberation of the camp. A row of small tents has been pitched outside the barracks. A group of survivors huddles in front of one of the tents.
Soon after liberation, camp survivors bathe in outdoor showers set up by the British. Bergen-Belsen, Germany, after April 15, 1945.
US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. This footage records examples of Nazi atrocities (shrunken head, pieces of tattooed human skin, preserved skull and organs) discovered by the liberating troops.
Camp survivors crowded in barracks at liberation. Dachau, Germany, April 29-May 1, 1945.
Corpses found when US troops liberated the Gusen camp, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Austria, after May 12, 1945.
Corpses found by US soldiers after the liberation of the Gunskirchen camp, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Austria, after May 5, 1945.
A member of the Zoska battalion of the Armia Krajowa escorts two of 348 Jews liberated from the Gęsiówka concentration camp during the Warsaw Polish uprising. August 5, 1944.
Two political prisoners, after US soldiers liberated the Gusen concentration camp. Austria, May 12, 1945.
A group of Jehovah's Witnesses in their camp uniforms after liberation. These men were imprisoned in the Niederhagen bei Wewelsburg concentration camp. Niederhagen bei Wewelsbug, Germany, 1945.
Learn about US Army Divisions that have been recognized as liberating units by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the US Army's Center of Military History.
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.