Customer Reviews

Dachau 29 April 1945: The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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

es893@columbia.edu

I think this book wasn't meant to tell the story of Dachau or its liberation so much as to serve as a repository of first-person testimony from people who were there on that day. Most of the soldiers were teenage farm boys, hardened by combat but utterly unprepared for the horrorshow they encountered outside Munich. When they got home, they tried to block out the memory, and rarely (if ever) talked about it. But as time goes on, more and more people pass away, both liberators and prisoners, and it became important that those memories were formally recorded, especially in light of the persistent Holocaust deniers. I'm grateful they had the courage to resurrect those painful memories all these years later, for the sake of future generations. The only good thing anybody can take away from a place like Dachau is to learn from it, and we can't learn if it we don't know.

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.

My father participated in the liberation of Dachau. He was a member of the 42nd Rainbow Division, Co. "L" 232nd Infantry Regiment of the U. S. Army during World War II. I know this topic is controversial, but the truth lies somewhere in between who exactly liberated Dachau. It is my understanding the 45th Infantry also liberated Dachau, but apparently, they came in from the opposite side and found the train loaded with dead prisoners. I'm continuing my research to find the truth, but according to my father's pictures, and speaking with others who were with him, this book is the truth, and the 42nd Infantry Rainbow Division participated in the liberation of Dachau. See my Web site at http://www.mickeymartins.com/ for the liberation pictures.

An amazing story of a very sad, ugly time in history. The Rainbow Div. put a happy face to many survivors.

In defense of the members of the division that contributed to this book I doubt many were professional writers. They provided a remembrance of something bad they had experienced in their life. Of course, one could argue they had many bad experiences during the war but what they saw on 29 Apr 45 and immediately thereafter may have been their worse experience.

The problem I had with the book is everybody remembered much of the same things. After awhile it got very repetitive and boring.

I do not recall reading many accounts of some of the less noble actions I have read elsewhere about their actions on that day. The troops in many instances conveniently looked in another direction when the inmates got their hands on their former guards. I understand some Americans themselves took part in summary executions of some guards. Although maybe technically "illegal" I cannot say I would have acted differently nor do I condemn the troops for allowing these things to happen given the circumstances.