America at Dachau

By Chaplain John G. Gaskill

Harrowing account of U.S. Army chaplain John G. Gaskill of what he witnessed in Dachau.

For three months, Gaskill ministered to liberated inmates and imprisoned SS soldiers at Dachau. Every evening for a month, Gaskill and other clergymen held mass funerals for those who died from starvation and disease. Gaskill tore down and kept the German sign forbidding entry to a mass grave on a hill. He replaced it with a cross and a Jewish star. He eventually made German prisoners bury the dead in separate graves in the cemeteries in town.

“At incredible Dachau, Chaplain Gaskill arranged for all the multitudinous services of the Ministry and Priesthood to be performed as necessary for many denominations in many different tongues. Although much has already been written about Dachau, this article, giving the experiences and observations of Chaplain Gaskill, paints an exceptionally vivid picture and presents it in a different light.—AUBREY L. BRADFORD Colonel MC Commanding.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Normanby Press
• Release date: Jul 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781786259721

Chaplain John G. Gaskill

Rev. John Gilbert Gaskill (1905-1996) was a U.S. Army chaplain who arrived in Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany on May 2, 1945, three days after it was captured by American soldiers.

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Text originally published in 1945 under the same title.

© Pickle Partners Publishing 2016, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

AMERICA AT DACHAU

BY

CHAPLAIN JOHN G. GASKILL

East Derry, New Hampshire

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

Foreword..... 4

First Impressions 5

Administration at Dachau 8

Hospitalization at Dachau 14

Chaplain at Dachau 19

Facts Ascertained Relating To The Mass Burial At Dachau, Germany. 22

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 26

Foreword.....

"At incredible Dachau, Chaplain Gaskill arranged for all the multitudinous services of the Ministry and Priesthood to be performed as necessary for many denominations in many different tongues. Although much has already been written about Dachau, this article, giving the experiences and observations of Chaplain Gaskill, paints an exceptionally vivid picture and presents it in a different light.

Signed,

AUBREY L. BRADFORD

Colonel MC Commanding."

First Impressions

There are THOUSANDS who have SEEN Dachau; from the first moment of its capture it was a mecca for many sincerely curious and in some instances sordid minds which wanted to see the depth of Nazi atrocity. There are, apart from the internees, comparatively FEW WHO KNOW Dachau. They are the ones who lived in that Camp during the first few terrifying weeks after its liberation. My unit, the 127th Evac. Hosp., and the 116th Evac. Hosp., were assigned the task of living in, cleaning up and caring for the thousands of sick. As Chaplain for the hospital, I ministered at Dachau. It was the greatest challenge of my Christian ministry.

Have you ever been kissed by a bewhiskered man who apparently has not washed for weeks; whose clothing is so torn and filthy it scarcely holds together; a man who is louse-ridden and in whose hollow eyes is the glassy stare! starvation and the eager bewilderment of one set at liberty after years of confinement? Or have you been kissed by one whose fevered voice was a parched