Explorer: Hitler's GI Death Camp Pictures
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Private First Class James Watkins
Marktredwitz, Germany: American medics treat an emaciated, 20-year-old soldier, Private First Class James Watkins of Oakland, California. Watkins was one of 63 American prisoners of war who survived a death march from the subcamp of Buchenwald known as "Berga." Located near the town of Berga am Elster, Germany, the Nazi camp put its captives to work to build a secret underground factory for creating synthetic fuel. The camp's code name was "Schwalbe V."
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Berga Survivors
Marktredwitz, Germany: American medics treat 63 American POWs who survived the Berga death march. They were liberated in late April, 1945, after enduring ten weeks at the camp. Upon liberation, most of the survivors weighed nearly half of the weight they had upon arrival at Berga.
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Survivor Alvin Abrams
American medics treat an emaciated soldier, Pvt. Alvin L. Abrams of Philadelphia, one of 63 American POWs who survived the Berga death march. The 63 survivors were all who were left of the original 350 American POWs selected to be sent to Berga. They arrived at Berga on February 13, 1945. The Berga GIs were liberated in two groups: the first by the 90th Infantry Division on April 20, 1945, and the second by the 11th Armored Division on April 23, 1945.
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Survivor David Goldin
April 27, 1945: Pvt. David Goldin of Richmond, Virginia, recuperates at a U.S. Army hospital in Cham, Germany. Goldin was one of 63 American POWs who survived the Berga death march. While only about three percent of the American armed forces was Jewish in 1945, 23 percent of the American POWs at Berga were Jewish. The Nazis were aided in determining their Jewish captives' religion by a letter "H" (signifying "Hebrew") marked on the soldiers' dog tags to indicate, in the case of death, the appropriate burial service for the deceased.
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Berga Survivors
May 3, 1945: American POWs recuperate after surviving the Berga death march. While they were held at the Berga labor camp, these POWs were forced to work in tunnels, hollowing out a mountain with dynamite and clearing away the rubble. The end goal of this project was to build an underground production center that would convert brown coal into fuel for the Third Reich.
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Labor Tunnel
The entrance to one of the work tunnels at Berga still remains. It was here where American POWs were forced to work during their imprisonment, blasting the rocky tunnel walls with dynamite and removing the rubble with their bare hands, without food or water, for hours on end.
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Labor Camp Prisoners
Prisoners at a labor camp work under the watch of a German Nazi guard.
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Holocaust Survivor Paul Molnar
Paul Molnar, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, poses for a portrait. During World War II, Molnar was imprisoned at the Berga labor camp, where American POWs, as well as Hungarian Jews, were forced to work under conditions of starvation and daily abuse. Upon arrival at the camp, Paul was separated from his mother, his grandmother, and his little brother.
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American POW Edward Slotkin
Edward Slotkin, 106th Infantry Division, an American GI during World War II, poses for a formal portrait. He was one of 350 American prisoners of war who were put to forced labor at Berga, and one of only 63 who survived to tell his story.
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Anthony Acevedo
Anthony Acevedo, an American GI medic during the war, poses for a portrait in uniform. Acevedo was a young Mexican-American from Pasadena, California when he joined the army. After his capture at the Battle of the Bulge, the SS, thinking Acevedo looked Jewish, chose him and 350 others to be sent to Berga.
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Anthony Acevedo
GI Anthony Acevedo stands for the camera in the winter of 1944.
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Father and Son Look Back
Anthony Acevedo stands in front of the barrack in Berga where he and the other American POWs slept. This is the first time Anthony has returned to the scene of his horror since 1945. He is accompanied on this emotional journey by his two sons.
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Former POW
Anthony Acevedo stands in front of the barrack in Berga where he and the other American POWs slept. Today, it is one of the only buildings remaining from the Berga labor camp.
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A Veteran Returns
Anthony Acevedo, accompanied by his two sons, visits the site of his imprisonment at Berga for the first time in 66 years.
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Berga Barrack
Ryan Hill, director of photography, shoots the exterior of the last-remaining barrack from the Berga death camp.
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Anthony Acevedo Today
Anthony Acevedo sits down for an interview to discuss the time he spent at Berga as a prisoner of war over 66 years ago.
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Anthony Acevedo Wedding Portrait
Berga survivor Anthony Acevedo poses with his bride and their wedding party for a formal wedding photo. Looking back, Acevedo says his (now ex-)wife never knew the real causes of his PTSD after the war.
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Recuperation
Emaciated American soldiers recuperating after liberation from a German prison camp.
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Three Survivors
Emaciated American soldiers recuperating after liberation from a German prison camp.
The medic on the right is my father, Dr. William Henry Reiff. The experience of taking care of those emaciated soldiers stayed with him his whole life. He didn't speak of it... perhaps he had to sign a non-disclosure like another medic did. But we'll never know because he passed on in 1998. http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/28/acevedo.holocaust.soldier/?hpt=Sbin