Liberation of Dachau is free talk subject at Military Museum in Saratoga Springs on Saturday, April 30

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK (04/26/2022) (readMedia)-- The 42nd Infantry Division and the liberation of the infamous Dachau concentration camp will be the subject of a free talk at the New York State Military Museum on Saturday, April 30.

New York Army National Guard Col. Richard Goldenberg, a former 42nd Infantry Division officer and veteran of the Iraq War will discuss the division's fateful liberation of prisoners from the notorious camp on April 29, 1945.

The program begins at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 30 and is free and open to the public.

The U.S. Army credits the 42nd Infantry Division, 45th Infantry Division and the 20th Armored Division for the liberation of the camp, with all three units having participated and been present at the camp's capture or within the 48 hours of its liberation.

The 42nd Infantry Division is now part of the New York Army National Guard and is headquartered in Troy.

The Dachau Concentration Camp was established by Nazi Germany in 1933. Situated on the outskirts of the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich, the camp was designed to hold about 5,000 political prisoners. At first, prisoners consisting primarily of Nazi Germany's political prisoners, notably German communists, Social Democrats, and other opponents of the Nazi regime.

As the regime's control over society expanded, the number of prisoners grew dramatically, and other groups were held at Dachau, including Jehovah's Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals, and repeat criminals. Beginning in 1938, Jews began to comprise a major portion of camp internees.

With the onset of World War II in 1939, Russian prisoners and French Resistance fighters also were sent to Dachau.

Prisoners at Dachau and its 169 subcamps in the surrounding area were used as forced laborers, especially for German armaments production. Nearly all prisoners at the camps suffered from disease and starvation.

The liberation on April 29, 1945 by American forces saved the lives of nearly 33,000 prisoners at the main concentration camp in the town of Dachau.

Goldenberg will draw on the oral histories of former 42nd Division veterans archived at the Museum and Veterans Research Center, highlighting the experience of former Albany resident Richard Marowitz, a 19-year old Rainbow Division Soldier during WWII who was present at the liberation of the notorious Concentration Camp.

Marowitz passed away in 2014, just weeks after filming an educational interview about his role in ending the Holocaust for NBC News educational component. His oral history was also captured for the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a Dachau liberator.

The talk is the last in the winter/spring series of talks for 2022 sponsored by trhe museum and the Friends of the New York State Military Museum.

The New York State Military Museum is located at 61 Lake Avenue in Saratoga Springs.