{"id":440224,"date":"2025-05-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=440224"},"modified":"2025-05-09T09:31:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T09:31:16","slug":"ny-national-guard-leaders-commemorate-80th-anniversary-of-dachau-liberation-in-wwii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=440224","title":{"rendered":"NY National Guard Leaders Commemorate 80th Anniversary of Dachau Liberation in WWII"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Alan Meltzer, the U.S. Embassy Charg\u00e9 d\u2019Affaires ad interim in Berlin, greets World War II veteran Lockered “Bud” Gahs at the Dachau Memorial to honor the victims of persecution and commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the notorious concentration camp. Gahs served in WWII with the 42nd Infantry Division, liberating the camp on April 29, 1945.
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\n The commemorative plaque of the Army’s 45th Infantry Division joins the 42nd Infantry Division and 20th Armored Division plaques at the gates of the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany on May 4, 2025 as part of the 80th anniversary commemorative events. Both infantry units continue to serve the Army as part of the National Guard as the 42nd Infantry Division Headquarters in New York and the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Oklahoma.
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\n New York Army National Guard\u2019s 42nd Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Jack James, left, joins with Command Sgt. Maj. Arnold Reyes, the division senior enlisted leader, at the entrance to Dachau Concentration Camp in Dachau, Germany, on May 4, 2025 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the camp\u2019s liberation by three divisions of the U.S. 7th Army, the 42nd Infantry Division, 45th Infantry Division and the 20th Armored Division.
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\n World War II veteran Lockered \u201cBud\u201d Gahs, a 100-year-old veteran of the 42nd Infantry Division, gives remarks at the Dachau Concentration Camp in Dachau, Germany, on May 4, 2025 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the camp\u2019s liberation by three divisions of the U.S. 7th Army, the 42nd Infantry Division, 45th Infantry Division and the 20th Armored Division.
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The commander of the New York Army National Guard\u2019s 42nd Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Jack James, joined with surviving U.S. Army liberators and descendants in Dachau, Germany, on May 4, 2025 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi Germany\u2019s notorious Dachau Concentration Camp.<\/p>\n

James, with a contingent of division leaders and the colors of the Army\u2019s famous \u201cRainbow Division,\u201d joined with representatives and descendants of the 45th Infantry and 20th Armored Divisions for the ceremony.<\/p>\n

The three units are credited with liberating the Dachau Concentration Camp on Sunday, April 29, 1945.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible honor to represent the Rainbow Division on behalf of our division\u2019s veterans,\u201d James said. \u201cThe liberators of Dachau!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rainbow Division Memorial Foundation, the association that maintains the legacy of the Army unit with roots dating back to 1917 and World War One, helped coordinate the larger presence of WWII Rainbow Division veterans and their families at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn total, we have between 50 and 80 family members of liberators from the three divisions coming together in Dachau,\u201d noted retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Giordano, an Iraq War division veteran and memorials officer of the foundation.<\/p>\n

The contingent also included Lockered \u201cBud\u201d Gahs, a 100-year-old WWII division veteran from Perry Hall, Maryland.<\/p>\n

The Dachau Concentration Camp was established by Nazi Germany in 1933. Situated on the outskirts of the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich, the camp was designed to hold about 5,000 political prisoners. Nearly 33,000 were present at the camp\u2019s liberation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is likely one of the final opportunities to meet with survivors and liberators,\u201d James said. \u201cI am really looking forward to speaking with and recognizing these heroes their service and sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The multiday ceremony, hosted by KZ-Gedenkst\u00e4tte Dachau, the camp memorial site and museum, included the dedication of a memorial plaque for the 45th Division, ensuring all three divisions have memorials at the Jourhaus gate.<\/p>\n

The 42nd Division plaque was installed in 1992.<\/p>\n

Other commemorative events included ceremonies at the Dachau subcamps on May 1 and 2, guided tours for relatives of former Dachau prisoners and liberators on May 3, including commemorating the victims of the Dachau Death March, and the central commemorative ceremony on May 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we opened the gates to Dachau, it was only then have we truly understood what we had been fighting for,\u201d Gahs said at the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Most division Soldiers knew Dachau as a political camp, and had no comprehension of the reach of the Holocaust throughout Europe.<\/p>\n

“Up until April 29, 1945, the majority of us in my unit were not aware of the Nazi efforts to exterminate the Jews – certainly not its scope, nor its effect on the world; and certainly none of us were aware of the Dachau Concentration Camp,\u201d said Lt. Jack Westbrook, a member of the 222nd Infantry Regiment in the 2015 Sam Dann collection of memories in \u201cDachau 29 April 1945: The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

A special \u201cNever Again\u201d commemoration was supported by the International Dachau Committee, the original organization of former prisoners. The committee was formed even before liberation in 1945 and includes former prisoners from 37 countries. The group helps oversee the maintenance, upkeep and memorials of the camp grounds and buildings.<\/p>\n

What the Rainbow Division Soldiers discovered at Dachau left an impression of a lifetime, wrote division assistant chaplain (Maj.) Eli Bohnen, the division\u2019s Jewish chaplain.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing you can put in words would adequately describe what I saw there,\u201d Bohnen said in a letter to home on May 1, 1945.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe human mind refuses to believe what the eyes see. All the stories of Nazi horrors are underestimated rather than exaggerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

One survivor\u2019s family only learned of the identity of their loved one\u2019s liberators in recent years.<\/p>\n

Aron Krochmalnik’s father, Josef Krochmalnik, was a Jewish survivor of the Lodz Ghetto and several concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Gross-Rosen, Flossenb\u00fcrg, and Dachau.<\/p>\n

It was during Aron\u2019s research of his father\u2019s Holocaust experience that he discovered some 75 years later that the liberators of April 30, 1945, were Soldiers of the Rainbow Division.<\/p>\n

Josef Krochmalnik had fled from a death march where SS troops forced concentration camp prisoners from arriving allied forces. Recaptured, Josef and others were at Stadelheim Prison in Munich, when the 42nd Division arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was on his way to be killed with his comrades in a bus when these brave American Soldiers stopped the bus and liberated my father, he said in correspondence with the Rainbow Division Memorial Foundation.<\/p>\n

The 42nd Division captured Munich on April 30, the day that Hitler took his life in his bunker in Berlin. Just over a week later, on May 8, the war ended in Europe and the Rainbow Division finished duties as an occupation force in Austria.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Munich, they liberated my father after five years of Ghetto Lodz, Auschwitz and four other concentration camps,\u201d Krochmalnik said. \u201cHis weight? 35 kilos (77 pounds).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father didn\u2019t know who liberated him,\u201d Krochmalnik explained. \u201cI discovered the Rainbow and the fundamental meaning for me as a survivor\u2019s kid. Without them, I would not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 80th anniversary ceremonies come when the New York Army National Guard Soldiers of the 42nd Division Headquarters prepare for mobilization and overseas deployment later this spring. It will mark the third time the division headquarters has served overseas since 9\/11.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis commemoration highlights the incredible history of our Rainbow Division \u2013 from the trenches of World War I, to defeating the last German offensive of World War II and liberating Dachau, to the Global War on Terror and beyond,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible honor to lead such a storied division into its next major chapter as we prepare to deploy again later this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 Alan Meltzer, the U.S. Embassy Charg\u00e9 d\u2019Affaires ad interim in Berlin, greets World War II veteran Lockered “Bud” Gahs at the Dachau Memorial to honor the victims of persecution and commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the notorious concentration camp. Gahs served in WWII […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440226,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=440224"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440231,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440224\/revisions\/440231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/440226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=440224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=440224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=440224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}