Susumu Ito, 522nd Field Artillery Battalion

Susumu Ito

522nd Field Artillery Battalion

Sus Ito tells about coming across Dachau survivors in the snow. (Run time: 2:14)

At the site or near there, there were a lot of prisoners along the road. Many were dead. They were really emaciated, wearing the dark purple and dark striped suits. There were others who were virtually skin and bone who would be begging food from us and jumping into garbage pits where we dump our food to eat. We still have no official recognition of being, although the press calls us as being, one of the liberators of Dachau. I think it's not well documented. We were not a liberating force of the main internment camp itself. But there was some 190 or 120 or so sub-camps. Sub-camps varied from relatively large ones with several hundred people or some with maybe a few dozen people that worked in factories for defense, ammunition. Some of these did not look like concentration camps at all. It would just be guarded buildings or barracks where they'd be taken everyday to work for the war effort. Some of these I'm sure, our direct path passed through these. Some of these were released. But, we did see many along the road who were walking or as I said, dead. It snowed in March. I think April 29th or 30th was the end of the liberation. There was unusual snow even that late, and there were snow-covered bodies.