Dachau 29 April 1945: The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs [Hardcover]

Sam Dann (Editor), Joseph I. Lieberman (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Dachau concentration camp, nine miles from Munich, was opened in 1933. It could accommodate 5,000 prisoners--political opponents of the Third Reich. Before liberation in 1945, the camp held more than 200,000 inmates, mostly Jews, and thousands died from starvation, exhaustion, torture, disease, and the crematorium. More than 30,000 survivors were liberated by several hundred men of the U.S. Army's 42d Rainbow Division. Those young soldiers' eyewitness accounts are recorded here. The soldiers tell of giving the survivors their rations, which was a mistake; some died as a result of too much food at one time. One soldier tells of refusing to intervene when a survivor killed his Nazi tormentor. Many soldiers write that they are still haunted by this grotesque spectacle beyond human imagination. These vivid recollections, complemented by 50 black-and-white photographs, give poignant testimony to the horrors of the Holocaust. George Cohen

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press; First edition (April 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896723917
• ISBN-13: 978-0896723917
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #867,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotionally rewarding account of april 29, 1945, March 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dachau 29 April 1945: The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs (Hardcover)

It was very moving to find my fathers'name mentioned in this book on page 229. The camps he was sent to by the Nazi's and his liberation by the Rainbow Divisions have left a permanent mark on my life. I would like to thank Dee Eberhart for bringing me in contact with this publication of Sam Dann. Sonja Holtz Arendse, Member of the Dutch Dachau Committee.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GOOD AND INFORMATIVE, August 6, 2000

By 

CARA (Denver, Co United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dachau 29 April 1945: The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs (Hardcover)

I THOUGHT THE BOOK WAS VERY IMFORMATIVE AND CONSIDRING THE BOOK WAS WRITTIN SO FAR AFTER WORLD WAR II, THE GI'S MEMORIES WERE SO VIVID AND TRAMATIC. AFTER VISITING DACHAU IN PERSON AND BEING INFORMED OF THE ATROCITIES, THE ACCOUNTS WERE ALL TO REALISTIC. I WOULD DEFINITALY SAY THIS IS A MUST READ ABOUT DACHAU.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review by an eye witness, May 28, 2008

By 

Ernest Seinfeld - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dachau 29 April 1945: The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs (Hardcover)

I was at the gate as a prisoner moments after the 42nd Rainbow Division arrived at Dachau in the afternoon of April 29, 1945.
This book gives an excellent and true picture of all the events surrounding the liberation and also as a general description of the conditions and horrors of this concentration camp. Speaking English, I was immediately hired as an interpretor and thus could see and observe both what happened inside and outside the camp at the time of the liberation. While the 45th Division arrived at another point of the vast area of the camp at about the same time, it was the 42nd Division that accepted the official surrender and took some fire from the SS that still manned the watch towers. Both divisions shared in the liberation.
Ernest Seinfeld
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