A still from a documentary film shows a U.S. soldier reaching out to outstretched hands of prisoners of the liberated Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, in then West Germany, in April 1945, during World War II.
U.S. Army/AP
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U.S. Army/AP
BERLIN — It is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi Germany’s Dachau concentration camp, and to commemorate, the Dachau memorial site north of Munich is dedicating a plaque in honor of the U.S. Army’s 45th Infantry Division that first encountered more than 30,000 prisoners alive at the camp on April 29, 1945.
The memorial site will host several days of official remembrance at the location of the former concentration camp, where at least 40,000 people were killed or died of hunger and illness between 1933 and 1945. That will include a commemoration for the victims and religious services for Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Greek and Russian Orthodox communities on Sunday.