About the Book
The Konzentrationslager (KZ) Ebensee Concentration Camp, a sub-camp of the KZ Mauthausen system, was established to house thousands of Jews and political prisoners and have them work on furthering the research and production of SS Officer Wernher von Braun’s V-2 missile program.
The liberation of this camp began on Sunday, May 6, 1945. History books state that the Eightieth Infantry Division was credited for freeing the 16,694 KZ Ebensee slave labor inmates.
The Eightieth Infantry Division was, in truth, some 40 miles behind the Third Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of the Third Cavalry Group. This group was coming up the road to the camp at around 10AM of that fateful morning and the Third Platoon of F Company opened the gates to freedom at 2:45PM.
The U.S. Army 139th Evacuation Hospital, like the two tanks and one jeep from the F Company, became phantom WWII units in historical archives. Inside The Gates: The Nazi Concentration Camp at Ebensee, Austria details this group’s involvement in the liberation and freedom of KZ Ebensee so that the men and women who served in these groups can also receive their rightful place in history.