As a Jewish-American officer serving in occupied Germany, Dolph had a unique and deeply personal perspective on the aftermath of the Holocaust. His letters contain some of the most powerful firsthand accounts of what American servicemen encountered.
The DP Camps
In February 1946, Dolph heard a detailed report from Henry Cohen about conditions in the displaced persons (DP) camps — temporary facilities holding Holocaust survivors and others displaced by the war. Cohen's account was devastating: of the six million Jews who had lived in Europe before the war, fewer than 200,000 remained.
The Memorial Service
On April 24, 1946, Dolph attended a Holocaust memorial service at a Jewish DP camp. General Lucius Clay and Ambassador Robert Murphy spoke, but what affected Dolph most was the presence of the survivors themselves — "the whimpering of hurt animals," he wrote. "But for the grace of God I and my beloved ones might have been in the very same position."
Hitler's Bunker
Just two days earlier, Dolph had visited Hitler's bunker in Berlin — exactly one year after Hitler's suicide. Standing in "the actual room where his body was found," Dolph reflected on the meaning of that moment for him as a Jew: he was "quite satisfied that I was able to be alive in the exact place where the death of the anti-Jew took place."