Tom Kono
522nd Field Artillery Battalion
Tom Kono talks about how pitiful and scared the Dachau prisoners looked coming out of a camp. (Run time: 1:43)
..place where we rescued was Dachau concentration camp. There, you can see some dead, you know, because it was cold. They had that flannel-kind shirt, you know. That's all they had, flannel pajama, flannel shirt with stripe. Some were trying to eat the dead carcass of some animal, horse, cattle or whatever it was. It was a pitiful sight. Then, when we finally opened the Dachau camp, got in, oh those people were so afraid, afraid of us, I guess. You could see the fear in their face. But eventually, they realized that we were there to liberate them and help them. But it was a pitiful sight, and then we saw all the ovens where they cremated the prisoners. Pretty bad sight. But, when I went back to Germany for a visit, Dachau seemed a little different. It was really spread out. I even saw the camp and oven, but it didn't seem like the same camp that what we saw. But, that was Dachau.
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