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WWII Veteran Recalls Dachau Concentration Camp Liberation
by U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Debralee Best
April 17, 2021
Soldiers of the 86th Training Division glimpsed the past during a
Days of Remembrance observation April 9, 2021.
“We observed,
pursuant to our Army’s equal opportunity Days of Remembrance
program, the Holocaust, by having the good fortune and high honor of
Mr. Tom Sitter coming to join us,” said Lt. Col. Jeno Berta, command
judge advocate, 86th Training Division and the coordinator of the
event.
Days of Remembrance was established by Congress as
the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust. Observances and
remembrance activities were held nationwide from April 4 to 11, 2021.
Sitter is a 97 year old World War II veteran and one of the
Soldiers, who liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp.
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Tom Sitter (97), World War II veteran and Days of Remembrance speaker, shows off the coin he received from Maj. Gen. Miguel A. Castellanos (left), commanding general, 84th Training Command, accompanied by Brig. Gen. Stacy Babcock
(right), commanding general, 86th Training Division, at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin
on April 9, 2021. (U.S. Army Reserve photo by Sgt. 1st Class Debralee Best, 86th Training Division)
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Dachau was a Nazi concentration camp opened March 1933, initially
intended to hold political prisoners. By 1944, approximately 30,000
prisoners were held in the camp. On April 29, 1945, the United
States entered the camp and liberated thousands of prisoners.
Sitter spoke with Soldiers of the training division about his
enlistment, his time with the Army, including the liberation, and
his life after the Army.
“What Mr. Sitter had to say resonated and I think that
was the uniform reaction of everyone in that room,” said Berta.
Sitter recalled entering Dachau during this presentation saying,
“As we were heading south, toward Munich, 10 miles northwest of
Munich was a town we had never heard of, the infamous town of
Dachau.”
“We were not prepared for this,” he continued. “This
was one of the most sickening and frightening, not that we were
afraid of ourselves, but we were not prepared for this. We didn’t
know what to do. All we saw were bodies piled on flatcars and people
were streaming out when we got there.”
Eventually a medical
clinic and soup kitchen was set up and trips were made back to
headquarters for blankets and sleeping bags for the displaced
persons.
Sitter said he wasn’t able to stay long as his unit
was called forward in a race to be the first to capture Adolf Hitler
as he was rumored to be nearby.
While he may not have been in
Dachau long, those displaced persons who were liberated that day are
grateful for his contribution. Due to that, Berta coordinated a
surprise for Sitter.
Berta reached out to a personal contact,
Dr. Tomaz Jardim, PhD, associate professor, Ryirson University,
Canada, and the author of “The Mauthausen Trial: American military
justice in Germany,” and inquired if he was familiar with any Dachau
survivors.
Elly Gotz was a survivor of Dachau.
Gotz
and his father were in the concentration camp when it was liberated,
weighing 75 and 65 pounds respectively. Gotz believes had they been
liberated even a day later that his father would not have survived.
Sitter and Gotz were able to communicate for the first time
via a Zoom application while on stage at the remembrance. The two
men spoke at length, Gotz thanking Sitter for his part in the
liberation and the two subsequently promising to share their books
and keep in touch.
While they share such a connection,
Sitter has never returned to Dachau as his memories are too graphic
for him, however, Gotz said he has returned multiple times. Today,
the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site resides in the location
of the original camp.
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