Post by mouse on May 20, 2015 4:34:34 GMT -5
Capt Wiley, an anesthesiologist in the Seventh Army, had been in action for months as American and British forces advanced from Normandy to Germany.
He was decorated for his work saving GIs' lives in surgery with a bronze star. He had performed 5,000 procedures.
In terms of the time he spent in it, Dachau was a small part of his war, and his letters contained other examples of everyday heroism, writing about 'trying to save a good-looking German eight-year-old who had stepped on a mine with resultant nine holes in his intestines, half a foot off, and hundreds of minor fragments in his upper legs, arms and face'.
But his experience of Dachau is likely to be the most significant addition to the historical record.
Historians have described the massacre of dozens of SS guards at the hands of American GIs as arguably the most shameful episode in American involvement in WWII.
The troops were so outraged at the horrific scenes at Dachau, where tens of thousands of innocent prisoners were killed and 30,000 left to die, that they lost their heads - and took revenge.
The charges against those involved were dismissed by General George Paton, but history has not forgotten what happened at the end of April 1945.
The New Republic article is one of the most disturbing accounts that has made public so far and goes further than even the official investigation carried out by the Army.
It gives a fresh account of what happened when ordinary soldiers confronted the worst of Nazi evil - and had to not just deal with it immediately, but live with the psychological consequences for the rest of their lives.
Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3088025/How-American-doctor-witnessed-Dachau-s-SS-guards-tortured-shot-dead-GIs-cold-blood-coming.html#ixzz3afaN5sos
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He was decorated for his work saving GIs' lives in surgery with a bronze star. He had performed 5,000 procedures.
In terms of the time he spent in it, Dachau was a small part of his war, and his letters contained other examples of everyday heroism, writing about 'trying to save a good-looking German eight-year-old who had stepped on a mine with resultant nine holes in his intestines, half a foot off, and hundreds of minor fragments in his upper legs, arms and face'.
But his experience of Dachau is likely to be the most significant addition to the historical record.
Historians have described the massacre of dozens of SS guards at the hands of American GIs as arguably the most shameful episode in American involvement in WWII.
The troops were so outraged at the horrific scenes at Dachau, where tens of thousands of innocent prisoners were killed and 30,000 left to die, that they lost their heads - and took revenge.
The charges against those involved were dismissed by General George Paton, but history has not forgotten what happened at the end of April 1945.
The New Republic article is one of the most disturbing accounts that has made public so far and goes further than even the official investigation carried out by the Army.
It gives a fresh account of what happened when ordinary soldiers confronted the worst of Nazi evil - and had to not just deal with it immediately, but live with the psychological consequences for the rest of their lives.
Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3088025/How-American-doctor-witnessed-Dachau-s-SS-guards-tortured-shot-dead-GIs-cold-blood-coming.html#ixzz3afaN5sos
Follow us: @mailonline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook