The body of 2nd Lt. Heinrich Wicker

Photo of dead prisoners with the body of an SS officer on the top

"This is the pile of dead prisoners awaiting to be burned in the crematorium. There were rooms filled like this. They died in the gas chamber. The fully clothed one on top was killed by the prisoners. He was an executive in the camp."

The two photographs above are from the G.J. Dettore Collection. The photo immediately above shows the caption written on the back of the top photo by the American soldier who took the picture. It shows a pile of naked corpses in the morgue next to the crematorium at Dachau. The soldier who took the picture made a notation on the back that the fully-clothed body on the top of the pile was that of an SS "camp executive" who had been killed by the inmates and then thrown on the pile in the morgue. Note the white card placed on the body of the SS man. The collar tab taken from the uniform of the dead SS man is a vertical silver bullion death's head.

G.J. Dettore, who contributed this photo, believes that the dead SS man is 2nd Lt. Heinrich Wicker, who surrendered the concentration camp to the American liberators. No other "camp executive" was in the camp on the day it was liberated, since they had all fled the day before.

Shown below is the photo taken in the morgue, side by side with a photo contributed by Don Jackson of the 40th Engineers, who were among the American Liberators. Jackson identified the body in the photo on the right as that of the "camp commander." Dachau Commandant Eduard Weiter had left the camp on April 26th, and 2nd Lt. Heinrich Wicker had been recruited by Victor Maurer, a Red Cross representative, to surrender the camp to the Americans.

 

  

Body of "camp executive" looks like body of "camp commander"

 

Back to Table of Contents

Home