Viggiani, Carl A.

Carl Viggiani, Emeritus Professor of Romance Languages and Literature at Wesleyan University, was a member of a "spearhead military government team" attached to the 83rd Infantry Division during World War II.

Carl Viggiani, Emeritus Professor of Romance Languages and Literature at Wesleyan University, was a member of a “Spearhead Military Government Team” attached to the 83rd Infantry Division during World War II. As the 83rd moved down toward the Elbe in April 1945, Viggiani's unit took over a Nazi official's home in Braunschweig for a night. The broadsides were found in the home. He identifies the photographs as follows:

“On or about 30 April 1945, his detachment was ordered to turn south and take over the Landkreis of Dachau, the site of the huge concentration camp which had just been liberated. Our Detachment was responsible initially for overall supervision of the camp; international groups soon took over that responsibility. In the meantime the men and officers of the Detachment became closely acquainted with the camp and some of its inmates. A group of inmates (I think calling themselves 'The Yugoslav Anti-Fascist Committee') photographed people and events in the camp when it was liberated and later, when things had quieted down. The packet of photographs is obviously incomplete.”

Viggiani left Dachau two months after its liberation and never returned, although the memories of what he saw there have remained with him, as demonstrated by the article published in the Haddam paper, also included in the collection.