Note, this presentation shares graphic content.

The liberation of prisoners held in Dachau (pronounced Daw-cow) concentration camp—one of the last camps to be freed—by American soldiers occurred on April 29, 1945. In honor of the 80th anniversary, Clarice Wilsey shares the experiences of her late father, who was a liberator of and a physician to the survivors at Dachau concentration camp. 

Captain David B. Wilsey, MD, served as an Army physician during World War II in the front lines of Germany and France, including the Battle of the Bulge. At the liberation of Dachau, he was one of 27 physicians that spent over a month treating surviving patients in extreme conditions. The American physicians and medical staff risked their lives to bring healing to the over 30,000 survivors who had been tortured and were experiencing deadly diseases and malnutrition.

Dr. Wilsey was an anesthesiologist for over 40 years in Spokane, and his children knew very little about his wartime experience. In 2009 when they were cleaning out the family home, they found a box of letters hidden in the attic that Dr. Wilsey had written, almost daily, to his wife Emily during his war experience and while he was at Dachau. The letters survived several moves and even a house fire. 
In several letters, Dr. Wilsey asked his wife “to tell thousands so that millions will know what Dachau is and never forget the name of Dachau.” His daughter Clarice has committed herself to answering his request so that people will never forget. 

During this presentation, Clarice Wilsey outlines the discovery of the letters and reads graphic excerpts of letters that her father wrote from Dachau. Previously a faculty member and career counselor at University of Oregon, Clarice follows her new calling—to make sure people “never forget” the horrors of Dachau and the Holocaust.