Birney Havey is a WWII Decorated Veteran who was in the 42nd Rainbow Division 222nd Anti-tank Unit , which liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp in April of 1945. His unit entered a house near the camp whose owner later turned out to be one of the Nazi Doctors who worked at the Camp. His Unit then entered Dachau near the Railroad tracks and discovered over 300 Railroad cars full of emaciated and decaying bodies of dead prisoners. The guards had fled the Camp and his Unit had to send scouts to the surrounding area to capture the guards and return them to the Camp to be indentified by the remaining prisoners. As Birney and his Unit walked through the Camp the starving prisoners were begging them for food. They gave the prisoners all the rations they had. Later in the day prisoners showed Birney the ovens where the bodies were burned. All over bodies were stacked like cord wood waiting to be cremated. The stench was horrible. They were also shown the barracks where the inmates slept, packed together like sardines in hard wooden racks. The next day Birney’s unit, the 222 Anti Tank Unit were given orders to push towards Munich, Germany.
Birney “Chick” Havey
