Liberation: An Overview

“The things I saw beggar description.... The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were... overpowering....I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’”
—General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a letter to Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, April 15, 1945

On June 6, 1944 (known as D-Day), the western Allies launched the single largest amphibious invasion force in world history, landing almost 150,000 soldiers under the command of US General Dwight D. Eisenhower on the beaches of Normandy, France. By the end of the month, more than 850,000 American, British, and Canadian troops had come ashore to embark upon what Eisenhower called the “Great Crusade,” the “destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.”

On June 22, 1944, Soviet forces opened a major offensive that crushed the German forces defending the center of the eastern front in western Belorussia, sweeping the line of the front into central Poland by early August.

Map

Defeat of Nazi Germany, 1942-1945 (Map)

Beginning in 1938, the Nazis increased their territorial control outside of Germany. By 1942, three years into World War II, Nazi Germany reached the peak of its expansion. At the height of its power, Germany had incorporated, seized, or occupied most of the continent. However, also in 1942, the Allied Powers started to systematically bomb Germany. They would continue to do so until Germany's surrender in 1945, weakening the war effort and demolishing cities.

Slowly, the Allied Powers began pushing Germany back towards prewar boundaries. From 1942 to 1943, Nazi Germany suffered battle and territory losses in the Soviet Union and North Africa. With the Soviets on the offensive, German troops were pushed westward, gradually losing control of the Eastern Front. In July 1943, the Allied Powers landed in Italy, pushing German troops north. Rome was liberated in June, 1944. That same month, other Allied divisions landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, pushing German troops east. By the end of 1944, the Allies had liberated a majority of Axis territories occupied during the war. 

In early 1945, Allied troops entered Germany. By mid-April, the Soviets had encircled the German capital of Berlin. On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler killed himself. The German armed forces surrendered unconditionally in the west on May 7 and in the east on May 9, 1945, bringing an end World War II in Europe. 

Credits:

• US Holocaust Memorial Museum

As Allied and Soviet troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they encountered concentration camps, mass graves, and numerous other sites of Nazi crimes. Soviet forces were the first to overrun a major Nazi concentration camp, Lublin/Majdanek, near Lublin, Poland, in July 1944. On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, where they discovered about seven thousand prisoners, including young children, who had not been evacuated by the SS. American soldiers, too, witnessed evidence of the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities as they marched into the interior of Germany, liberating the major concentration camps such as Buchenwald, Dachau, and Mauthausen as well as hundreds of subcamps, including Ohrdruf (a subcamp of Buchenwald). Though the liberation of Nazi camps was not a primary objective of the Allied military campaign, US, British, Canadian, and Soviet troops freed prisoners from their SS guards, provided them with food and badly needed medical support, and collected evidence for war crimes trials.

Photo

US troops enter Buchenwald (Photo)

US soldiers enter the Buchenwald concentration camp following the liberation of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, after April 11, 1945.

Credits:

• US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Liberation Dates

Listed here are dates of liberation of some of the camps:

July 23–24, 1944: Soviet forces liberated Lublin-Majdanek

January 27, 1945: Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau

February 13, 1945: Soviet forces liberated Gross-Rosen

April 4, 1945: US forces liberated Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald

April 11, 1945: US forces liberated Buchenwald and Dora-Mittelbau

April 12, 1945: Canadian forces liberated Westerbork

April 15, 1945: British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen

April 22, 1945: Units of the First and 47th Polish Armies, operating under overall Soviet command, liberated Sachsenhausen

April 23, 1945: US forces liberated Flossenbürg

April 29, 1945: Soviet forces liberated Ravensbrück; US forces liberated Dachau

May 4, 1945: British forces liberated Neuengamme

May 6, 1945: US forces liberated Mauthausen

On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender became official.