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Clarence Williams

Staff Sergeant Clarence Williams was a combat medic assigned to the US 122nd Medical Battalion, 42nd Division (the Rainbow Division) during World War II. Williams deployed to France in January 1945 and was present at the liberation of Dachau concentration camp in April of that year. Williams photographed both the liberation of Dachau and other experiences he had during the war in Europe. Growing up in Crescent and Council Bluffs, Iowa, he eventually settled in Lincoln, Nebraska after the war. Clarence’s collection of photographs and letters between he and his wife, Gretchen, detailing his World War II experiences were made available to the Institute for Holocaust by Clarences son, Dr. Tom Williams. There are instances where Clarence does not use proper English conventions in his descriptions. We have transcribed his writing as it appears in the original text. Hear Clarence's stories directly from his family members.


604 items

Hitler's Hideout

  • Date: 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

View Across the Valley

  • Date: 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

Watson and Jones

  • Date: 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

Castle - Front entrance

  • Date: 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

Castle - Rear Entrance

  • Date: 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

Hotel Alpenrose

  • Date: 1945
  • Format: postcard

Bayrischzell with Valley

  • Date: 1945
  • Format: postcard

Bridge Across the Salza

  • Date: 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

Hallein, Austria

  • Date: 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

View of Hallein and the Church

  • Date: 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

Four years later - Crocks empty now, stone marks dead in fog-bound Dachau

  • Date: 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

Crematory Oven

  • Date: 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

Rainbow Division Map

  • Date: 1945
  • Format: object
  • Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of the Gregg and Michelle Philipson Collection and Archive; Accession Number: 2017.611.2

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 2, 1945

  • Date: January 2, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 3, 1945

  • Date: January 3, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 4, 1945

  • Date: January 4, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 5, 1945

  • Date: January 5, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 8, 1945

  • Date: January 8, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 9, 1945

  • Date: January 9, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 10, 1945

  • Date: January 10, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 11, 1945

  • Date: January 11, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 12, 1945

  • Date: January 12, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 13, 1945

  • Date: January 13, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 14, 1945

  • Date: January 14, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 15, 1945

  • Date: January 15, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 16, 1945

  • Date: January 16, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 17, 1945

  • Date: January 17, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 20, 1945

  • Date: January 20, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 21, 1945

  • Date: January 21, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 24, 1945

  • Date: January 24, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 24, 1945

  • Date: January 24, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 25, 1945

  • Date: January 25, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 27, 1945

  • Date: January 27, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Telegram from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 29, 1945

  • Date: January 29, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 29, 1945

  • Date: January 29, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Henning Linden to the Officers and Men of the Rainbow Infantry Regiments, January 31, 1945

  • Date: January 31, 1945
  • Format: letter

Group Photo February 1945

  • Date: February 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

A Group of the Boys

  • Date: February 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

One of Our Billets

  • Date: February 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: photograph
  • Source: Clarence Williams Photo Album, Institute for Holocaust Education, Omaha, Nebraska

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, Feburary 1, 1945

  • Date: February 1, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, Feburary 2, 1945

  • Date: February 2, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, February 3, 1945

  • Date: February 3, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, Feburary 10, 1945

  • Date: Feburary 10, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, February 12, 1945

  • Date: February 12, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, February 13, 1945

  • Date: February 13, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, February 14, 1945

  • Date: Feburary 14, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, February 14, 1945

  • Date: February 14,1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, February 15, 1945

  • Date: Feburary 15, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, February 17, 1945

  • Date: February 17, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education

Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, February 18, 1945

  • Date: Feburary 18, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter
  • Source: Clarence Williams Collection, Institute for Holocaust Education
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