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.

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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