concentration camp complex - National Archives and Records ...

III.50 SHAEF G­4 Division, Executive Section Decimal File 1945 (Entry 34)
SHAEF G­5 Displaced Persons Branch Weekly Reports for April–May
1945, filed under 383.7 (refugees), provide useful information on the prob­
lems attending the liberation of concentration camps in the European
Theater of Operations (ETO). Displaced Persons Report No. 30, April 30,
1945, provides a current and comprehensive picture of displaced persons
and refugee activities, including estimated numbers and living conditions,
in the ETO, a current statement of policy, available supplies, and equipment
and country operations. Displaced Persons Report No. 32, May 28, 1945,
summarizes conditions at Mauthausen and (see Appendix E) includes
extracts of a newspaper account of camp atrocities as reported by the French
doctor Prof. Marshal, among those released from Mauthausen in late April
1945. (Vols. I and II, box 157, location: 290/07/18/03)
III.51 SHAEF G­5 Division, Secretariat Numeric File, August 1943–July
1945, Displaced Persons Branch (Entry 47)
The numeric file includes the following files documenting the American
liberation of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp complex:
• File 2711/1 “Displaced Persons—Germany and Austria: Foreign
Workers and Working Prisoners”: An undated (filed circa November
1944) report includes a chart filed under Area XIII–Austria listing for­
eign workers and working prisoners by nationality, with totals for region,
town, employer, and occupation (Box 50, location: 290/07/21/07)
• File 2711/5 “Countries–Germany–General”: Report on German Con ­
centration Camps at which it is “Recommended that SAARF Teams be
Dropped from the Air,” April 18, 1945, includes a list compiled from mil­
itary and French intelligence sources of concentration camps, including
Mauthausen, where critical conditions existed among United Nations
political prisoners, and a cover sheet requesting that action be taken by
SHAEF G­3 (operations) for the drop of SAARF teams (Special Allied
Airborne Reconnaissance Force teams) immediately upon liberation to
facilitate emergency remedial action. Major M.J. Proudfoot of SHAEF,
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