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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

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

  • Date: January 10, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter

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

  • Date: January 9, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter

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

  • Date: January 8, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter

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

  • Date: January 5, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter

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

  • Date: January 4, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter

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

  • Date: January 3, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter

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

  • Date: January 2, 1945
  • Creator(s): Williams, Clarence
  • Format: letter

One of the Cars at Dachau

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

Another Box Car at Dachau

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

Man Who Had Been Shot at Dachau

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

Dachau Scene Taken by Irv Miller

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

Dachau Box Car

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

Car Load of Bodies at Dachau

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

New German Dachau Mass Grave Found

  • 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

Captain Joseph O'Brien Viewing Bodies

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

Dachau Crematory

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

Dead S.S. Guards at Dachau

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

Piles of Clothing at Dachau

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

Dachau citizens help erase camp memories

  • 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

Dachau Crematory (image 1)

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

Dachau Crematory (image 2)

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

Bodies at Dachau

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

Our Aid Station at Eoling

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

German Prisoners

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

Munich Tombs

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

Prisoners Surrendering

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

A Typical German Street

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

Our Aid Station at Freutsmoos

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

Celebrating VE day

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

VE Prayer Service (image 1)

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

VE Prayer Service (image 2)

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

Our Station at Obing, Germany.

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

Making Wool Thread

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

Bayrischzell, Germany

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

The 42nd "Rainbow" Division

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

Clarence Williams with a Little Native

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

Insull at Swimming Pool

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

A Winter Scene

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

Bayrischzell, Germany

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

Across the Valley

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

Summer View of Our Home

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

Clarence Williams at Bayrischzell

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

The Sky Ride at Innsbruck, Austria

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

Our 1st Sgt. Jack Bell

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

Near Marseilles, France

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

A View of DBS

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

Barron and Beautlieu

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

Volleyball at DBS

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