Although it was at the end of April when thecamp was liberated, the weather was very cold and there was adusting of snow. Note the prisoner on the left wearing an overcoat.In the background to the left is what appears to be a soldier,probably one of the liberators. There was one American Prisonerof War, Major Rene J. Guiraud from Cicero, IL, in the Dachau campwhen it was liberated and 5 other Americans who were civiliansliving in Germany when the war started, according to Marcus J.Smith in his book "The Harrowing of Hell." Accordingto survivor Nerin E. Gun, there were 11 Americans imprisoned atDachau. The majority of the prisoners in the Dachau camp on liberationday were civilians from German occupied Poland, numbering 9,082,including 96 women, who were brought to the camp as slave laborers,according to official American Army documents. In his book "TheDay of the Americans," Nerin E. Gun wrote that some of thesurvivors had been in the Dachau camp for 11 years. Many who wereincarcerated in the first year of the camp were released afterserving time, according to the Museum Guidebook. One survivorwas Ernst Kroll, a Communist, who was sent to the camp a few monthsafter it opened in 1933 and was still there on liberation day.According to Michael Selzer in his book about the liberation,Kroll said that the camp had "deteriorated terribly"in the last few months before it was liberated. Kroll said thecamp "was beginning to look like Calcutta," referringto the temporary structures that had been created with poles andblankets on the sides of the barracks.