Pulling the Dead SS Soldier from Dachau Canal

Image size: 1600 x 1218 pixel. 506 KB
Date: Sunday, 29 April 1945
Place: Dachau, Oberbayern, Germany
Photographer: Unknown

The photograph above shows two soldiers from the 42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division and one of the released prisoners from Dachau concentration camp (Konzentrationslager) pulling the body of a dead Waffen-SS soldier from the Würm river which flows in a concrete-lined canal along the west side of the camp. The American soldier on the far right is 19-year-old Richard F. Dutro of 232 Infantry, E Company from Zanesville, Ohio. After liberated the camp in 29 April 1945, personnel of the 42nd Division discovered the presence of guards, presumed to be SS men, in a tower to the left of the main gate of the inmate stockade. This tower was attacked by Tec 3 Henry J. Wells 39271327, Headquarters Military Intelligence Service, ETO, covered and aided by a party under Lt. Col. Walter J. Fellenz, 0-23055, 222 Infantry. No fire was delivered against them by the guards in the tower. A number of Germans were taken prisoner; after they were taken, and within a few feet of the tower, from which they were taken, they were shot and killed. Quoted from the IG Report of the U.S. Seventh Army. The bodies of two other SS men from Tower B had fallen into the Würm canal beside the tower.

Source:

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/DachauLiberation/GuardTowerB.html

Knocked-Out Sd.Kfz.250 of Swedish SS Volunteer at Berlin

Image size: 1600 x 1238 pixel. 524 KB
Date: Wednesday, 2 May 1945
Place: Friedrichstraße, Berlin, Germany
Photographer: Mark Redkin

This famous picture by Soviet photographer Mark Redkin shows the knocked out command vehicle (Leichter Schutzenpanzerwagen Sd.Kfz.250 "Neue") of the Swedish SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans-Gösta Pehrsson, commander of the so called "Schwedenkompanie" (3.Kompanie / Aufklärungs-Abteilung 11 / 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland), at Friedrichstraße in Berlin. The body lying to the right of the vehicle appears to be Pehrssons dead driver, the Swede SS-Unterscharführer Ragnar Olof "Giraffen" Johansson. The escape attempt took place the night between May 1 – 2 1945. The above halftrack with licence plate 'SS 900915' was manned by the Aufklärungs-Abteilung 11. They came under heavy Soviet fire at Friedrichstraße. The driver SS-Unterscharführer Johansson was killed and the Swedish SS-Hauptsturmführer Pehrsson, commander of the very same vehicle, later identified the fallen in this photograph as his driver Ragnar Johansson. Pehrsson himself was wounded, but he managed to get away from the Soviets at the time. Fortunately, Pehrsson had time to get rid of his uniform jacket and changed into a Wehrmacht one before being taken prisoner. He was sent to a prison camp, which he managed to escape from. He then hide himself in an apartment in Berlin. After a while, he met another SS-man and together they walked to the British occupation zone and from there they were able to get back to Sweden. BTW, the researcher Lennart Westberg positioned the place for the photo to be Friedrichstraße 107 with the walls of the guardhouse in the backround, 200m north of the river Spree..

Source:

"Twilight of the Gods: A Swedish Waffen-SS Volunteer's Experiences with the 11th SS-Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, Eastern Front 1944-45" by  Thorolf Hillblad and Erik Wallin
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=81014&start=15

http://stabswache-de-euros.blogspot.com/2011/05/der-untergang.html

The Death Of SS General Ernst Fick

Image size: 1600 x 1338 pixel. 466 KB
Date: Sunday, 29 April 1945
Place: Murnau, Southern Bavaria, germany
Photographer: Unknown

On April 29, 1945, during the Murnau Oflag (Offizierslager) VII-A assembly, a plane with Polish insignia had appeared in the sky, circled above the assembly square, tried to signal something and went away. Soon on the road to the camp appeared American tanks. At the same time from the other side of Murnau, two German cars approached. They stopped upon noticing the tanks. Germans had been taken by surprise. SS officer in the first car opened fire from the machine gun, at the same time his companion jumped out of the vehicle. Both men were killed on a spot by the Americans (SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve Max Teichmann and SS-officer Widmann). The same fate met the passangers of the second car. Among the dead Germans was SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Ernst Fick (in the above picture lies at left, while at right is his driver with the rank SS-Untersturmführer) who rides in the second car. His briefcase contained the letter signed by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. It was an order to kill all 5,000 Polish POW officers encamped in Murnau! To execute this task Fick had had at his disposal an SS group in 40 armoured vehicles that started from Münich. Most likely the SS-man intended to assemble the POWs and killed them with the machine guns fire from guard's towers. After finishing off the Germans, one of the Americans' tank smashed the entrance gate and entered the assembly square. The representative of POWs welcomed American soldiers. He had addressed them in English. The commander of the tank shook his head and answered in Polish: " My name is Szewczyk, we came to liberate you". He was from Kalisz, Poland!

Source:
http://einestages.spiegel.de/external/ShowTopicAlbumBackgroundXXL/a26823/l16/l0/F.html

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=196178
http://www.forum-der-wehrmacht.de/thread.php?threadid=4895

http://www.sppw1944.org/index.html?http://www.sppw1944.org/powstanie/powstanie_oboz_eng.html