Tales of a Concentration Camp

Written and compiled by Pim Reijntjes
Translated by Marleen Eddlemon
Edited by Melissa Bowen

Foreword

It was a cold night for the time of year, on April 29th, 1945, when we were liberated from Dachau Concentration camp. At five thirty in the afternoon, the first Americans entered the camp. Very carefully, because minutes ago they had still been shot at from the watchtowers, in spite of the white flags the SS had placed there.

They entered the camp through the main entrance, the "Jourhaus", through the cast iron gate with the text "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work will set you free).

They were shocked, these boys of the Rainbow Division, unprepared as they were to see the emaciated dead bodies. In the train, and later in the crematorium. And now, all those thousands of intensely happy prisoners met them on the parade ground. Finally, they were free, after all these years of misery.

These were moments that will never be forgotten, neither by the liberators, nor by the liberated.

It is difficult to imagine that this was sixty years ago.

The friendships that were formed then have not been lost. An important part in that was played by the newsletter "Nieuwsbrief Dachau". This book contains a selection of articles that were published in the newsletter, as well as on the website www.dachau.nl.

We, the witnesses to what happened in Dachau, see it as a pleasure to have the opportunity to offer this book to you, to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of our liberation.

Pim Reijntjes

Hollandse Rading, 29 April, 2005

Next