Dachau liberator Teddy Dixon has died aged 100 in Belfast

Having liberated one of the first Nazi concentration camps to be discovered by the Allies (in April 1945), then helping to recover a priceless treasure trove of looted treasures hidden in an Austrian salt mine by Hermann Goering, the Cregagh man had a remarkable war by any standards.

Teddy was born in New York in 1920 but returned with his parents to their native Belfast when he was only five-years-old.

In a Twitter message on Saturday, the US Consulate said: “Today we mourn New York born Teddy Dixon who served in the U.S. army 42nd ‘Rainbow’ Infantry Division. After liberating 33,000 people from the horrors of Dachau concentration camp, he returned to East Belfast a hero. We will remember his service and selfless heroism.”

He had been working as an air raid warden at the time of the Belfast Blitz in 1941 but in 1944, immediately following the heavy Allied losses on D-Day, he received call-up papers from the US Army.

Fighting his way through France into Germany with the US Army’s ‘Rainbow Division,’ the then Ravenhill Road resident saw more unspeakable horrors than he cares to remember – but the sheer barbarism of Dachau never left him.

Speaking to the East Belfast Herald newspaper at his Cregagh home in 2009, he said he was unsure if the call-up could be legally enforced, but decided to enlist in case he would be subsequently directed to serve with the Navy. What happened next took the Belfast bakery worker on an epic journey through France and into southern Germany via the Haardt Mountains and Hitler’s ‘eagle’s nest’ mountain base at Berchtesgaden.

As the war drew to a close in 1945, Teddy’s unit was involved in the capture of Hitler’s deputy – Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering – in Austria, and it was the newly-promoted Sergeant Dixon who dispatched to check out reports of a salt mine filled with priceless artworks, and then tasked with guarding the treasures at Salzburg Castle.

“I was one of the first 12 soldiers to enter the gates of Dachau camp on April 29 and can still see the bodies in my mind’s eye,” Teddy recalled in 2009.

“The dead were lying everywhere and the smell was indescribable. We found one man who had been left for dead in a carriage but was still alive and we got him some medical attention. We gave our rations to as many of those who could eat but it was too late for several who died in front of our eyes.

“It was like going into Hell.”

In March this year, members of Teddy’s family travelled thousands of miles to be with him for a busy round of birthday celebrations.

Speaking to the News Letter in 2014, he said the vivid memories would never leave him, but he continued to carry out speaking engagements to raise awareness of the warning from history.

“I still like doing the talks in schools but it can annoy you a bit sometimes when you think about it. Many a time when I wake up I find I’ve been dreaming about the Holocaust,” he added

With Teddy Dixon’s war record reading like the plot of a Hollywood film, it was no surprise that George Clooney brought one of the Belfast man’s adventures to life in a blockbuster movie.

The Monuments Men, released in 2014, was based on the story of the Nazis’ looted art treasures Teddy helped recover from an Austrian salt mine.

Each one of thousands of priceless artworks – including Michelangelo’s ‘Madonna of Bruges’ sculpture and Vermeer’s painting ‘The Astronomer’ – had been packed on to several train carriages and hidden in the mine close to Altaussee.

At the film’s launch, the then 94-year-old Teddy was a Movie House cinema guest for a special screening in Belfast.

He told the News Letter afterwards: “I enjoyed it. It was definitely based on fact and quite well done based on my point of view of having been in the mines. It brought back a lot of memories.”

100th birthday celebrations for Teddy Dixon

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