Question

When US army prosecutor William Denson later began what were called the Dachau trials, he named 40 camp officials as defendants. The officials did not deny their involvement with Dachau camp, but many denied that prisoners were treated harshly or killed while under their care. Denson was not worried about proving them wrong. Which fact would Denson MOST likely use to his advantage when looking for evidence of how prisoners at Dachau were treated?

Answer 1

William Denson would use direct testimonies from liberating soldiers and physical evidence such as U.S. Army aerial photos and witness accounts from trials to prove the harsh treatment of prisoners at Dachau.

Step-by-step explanation:

When US army prosecutor William Denson began the Dachau trials, he could use several facts to his advantage, but one of the most compelling pieces of evidence likely to be used was the direct testimony and the physical evidence found at the camp upon liberation. This includes the U.S. Army aerial photos such as the one showing the concentration camp at Dachau, which provides a layout of the camp, supporting the scale of operations with barracks, hospital, and storehouses for the guards. Additionally, eyewitness accounts from liberating soldiers, like the remarks from Felix L. Sparks at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, reveal a firsthand encounter with the aftermath, including sights of emaciated corpses and the overwhelming stench of death, contradicting any arguments made by the defendants about prisoners not being treated harshly.

These firsthand narrative and visual confirmations, complemented by evidence presented at trials by liberators, such as photos and senators witnessing atrocities, and the liberation of other concentration camps like Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, as well as the orders and tactics disclosed by SS officers in trials, unequivocally expose the systemic brutality and mass executions orchestrated by the camp officials.

Answer 2

It is likely that Denson sought the testimony of ex-prisoners, survivors of Dachau, as well as showing photos and evidence taken during the liberation of the camp.

Step-by-step explanation:

A Nazi concentration camp was built in Dachau, where thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, were arrested, tortured and forced into slave labor for the German military campaign. In addition, because of all the torture that many prisoners suffered, they were murdered and live in a constant state of malnutrition, disease and filth.

At the end of the second war with the liberation of the concentration camp, there were several trials against Nazi officials in these camps. The testimony of many former prisoners was used as evidence of the ill-treatment suffered, as well as photographs taken on the day of the camp's release.