The Forty-Second Infantry Division of the US Army National Guard, nicknamed the “Rainbow Division” because it was comprised units from several states that didn’t have their own divisions, liberated Dachau, the longest-running concentration camp in Germany, on April 25, 1945. This map of their route from France into Germany was distributed to every member of the division to commemorate their success.

Though the Rainbow Division’s nickname predated its march into Germany, the prescient symbolism — echoing the Genesis story of God’s covenant to never again destroy the world — was not lost on the soldiers. This Shana Tova card (for the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah) sent from 42nd Infantry Major General Harry Collins commemorates that covenant, expressing hope for peace in the new year — and the new era begun by the liberation of the concentration camps and the end of the war in Europe.

Though the Rainbow Division’s nickname predated its march into Germany, the prescient symbolism — echoing the Genesis story of God’s covenant to never again destroy the world — was not lost on the soldiers. This Shana Tova card (for the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah) sent from 42nd Infantry Major General Harry Collins commemorates that covenant, expressing hope for peace in the new year — and the new era begun by the liberation of the concentration camps and the end of the war in Europe.

The May 11, 1945 edition of The Rainbow Reveille, the newsletter published by the forty-second, celebrates the end of the war in Europe, highlighting the Rainbow Division’s individual successes as well as VE Day, during which, the paper reports, “There was no celebrating of the Times Square variety among GIs, but merely a feeling of thankfulness that one phase of the World War was finished.”

The inside of the Rainbow Reveille newsletter offers a more somber look at the liberation of Dachau, including the history of the camp and the first photographs taken within its walls (taken by Reveille photographer Private First Class William R. Hazard).