Retreating Nazi troops forced 1,016 POWs held in the Gardelegen concentration camp into this barn on April 13, 1945 and set the building on fire. Those trying to escape the inferno were shot.
This photograph, taken by Edmund S. Motzko a few days after the atrocity occurred, shows the rear of the barn with the mass graves of some 500 victims in the foreground. American forces arrived before all of the victims could be buried.
Publisher: Edmund S. Motzko, used with permission.
Date: 1945
