Draft:Chaim Thau

• Comment: Please review MOS:PROSE and WP:NOTESSAY, along with WP:NPOV. Things like "click here," "hence," "but not the last," "to paraphrase," just as examples, are not appropriate encyclopedic language. MWFwiki (talk) 21:39, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

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Charles "Chaim" Thau
Born	(1921-07-07)July 7, 1921 Zabolotiv, Poland (now Ukraine)
Died	April 2, 1995(1995-04-02) (aged 73) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Unit	58th Guards Rifle Division
Battles / wars	World War II Battle of Berlin
Spouse(s)	Ida Thau (née Faich)
Children	3 (Martin Thau, Esther (nee Thau) Klienburg, and Col. Jeffrey Thau, USAF, Ret.)

Charles "Chaim" Thau (born 1921 in Zabolotiv, Poland (present-day Ukraine) – died 1995) was a Holocaust survivor, Jewish partisan fighter, Red Army officer, and later an American immigrant known for appearing in a widely circulated photo of the Elbe River link-up between American and Soviet forces in April 1945.

After the war, he helped smuggle Jewish refugees to Palestine through the Bricha network and later settled in the United States, where he became a business owner in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

He spent approximately 19 months in hiding in the Carpathian forests as a partisan before integrating into the Red Army, where he served as a translator and later as a lieutenant commanding an anti-tank battery with the 58th Guards Rifle Division, part of the 1st Ukrainian Front. Thau was present at the meeting between Red Army and American forces at the Elbe River in April 1945, an event documented in contemporary news photography. After the war, he was involved in Bricha, a movement assisting Jewish refugees to emigrate to Palestine, and later settled in the United States.

Lt Charles Thau meeting American Soldiers (Center Facing Photographer)

Early life and Education

Thau was born in the shtetl of Zabolotiv in eastern Poland in 1921 and raised in an agrarian Jewish family. His mother taught Yiddish, German, and Polish from their home. He had two younger brothers.

In September 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, resulting in the partition of Poland. Zabolotiv was placed under Soviet control.

Thau's home was in the Soviet side of the partition from 1939-1941

During the Soviet occupation (1939–1941), local schools began teaching in Russian, expanding Thau’s language proficiency to include Russian in addition to Polish, German, Yiddish, and Hebrew.

Residents talking with a Red Army soldier, 1939, Attribution:Wikimedia Commons PD-Belarus-US

Many in the region initially believed the Soviet presence would protect Jewish communities from Nazi persecution; however, efforts to integrate eastern Poland into the Soviet Union soon followed.

Nazi invasion and persecution

In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. German forces reached Zabolotiv by December 1941. The Einsatzgruppen and local collaborators began mass killings of the town’s Jewish population. By the end of that year, approximately 1,100 of Zabolotiv’s estimated 2,700 Jews were executed.

Jews transported, 1941–1942 Zabolotiv environment. (Attribution:Bundesarchiv,Bild 101I-380-0069-33/Lifta/CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Most of the remaining Jewish residents were deported to extermination camps. Only five Jewish residents of the town are known to have survived the war, including Thau.

Hiding and partisan activity

Thau escaped into the nearby Carpathian forests, where he remained in hiding for approximately 19 months. He survived by foraging for food and occasionally taking shelter in barns and dugouts. During this time, he joined another Jewish survivor—his childhood friend—and together they formed a small partisan unit near the Romanian border.

Thau's partisan activity near Romania border

In some instances, Thau reportedly disguised himself as a German officer to obtain food and medical treatment, leveraging his fluency in German and a procured uniform.

Introduction to Red Army service

In mid-1943, Red Army combatants discovered Thau hiding in the woods with his childhood friend, now a partisan team with others. According to several accounts, Soviet combatants initially suspected Thau of being a collaborator due to his fluency in German and appearance, before integrating him into their ranks as a translator They unofficially conscripted Thau due to his language skills, and immediately blended him into the Red Army ranks, initially as a translator.

Later Thau rose to the rank of lieutenant, commanded an anti‑tank battery, and was assigned to the 58th Guards Rifle Division of the 1st Ukrainian Front—this was the first Red Army unit that encountered the Western Allies, specifically the 69th Infantry Division (United States), at the Elbe River on 24 April 1945.

Elbe River link-up (April 1945)

On 24 April 1945, Thau's unit encountered the U.S. 69th Infantry Division at the Elbe River near Torgau. This meeting symbolized the link-up of Eastern and Western Allied forces. Thau was photographed during the encounter, positioned in the center and facing the camera.

Lt Charles Thau meeting Americans (Center Facing Photographer)

Thau is seen in this first of two actual re-enacted photos taken at the time, staring directly into the camera. The film was immediately sent to the Associated Press, and the iconic first snapshot appeared on the front page of The New York Times on 25 April 1945.

Battle of Berlin

Following the Elbe River link-up, Thau’s unit advanced to Berlin and participated in street combat during the final weeks of the war. He sustained a gunshot wound to the jaw during the fighting—his second combat injury of the war. A bullet fragment from that injury remained in his jaw for over five years, until it was surgically removed in Milwaukee in 1951.

Post War Activities (Smuggling Refugees, Israeli Statehood)

After the war, Thau returned briefly to Zabolotiv. He learned that his immediate family had perished during the Holocaust He later relocated to Salzburg, Austria, where he worked as an automobile mechanic while also participating in the Bricha movement. Bricha was an underground network that helped Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews emigrate from Central and Eastern Europe to Palestine. Thau assisted in organizing covert travel across the Alps and through British-controlled areas of pre-state Israel.

Salzburg Bricha Unit, Thau is top row, 3rd from right

Thau, far right of those standing on auto circa 1946, PD-Austria, PD-US-no notice

From Salzburg, Thau would then help refugees travel by truck, car, or hike across the Alps, and eventually by ferry to bypass the British-controlled territory of pre-state Israel.

Immigration to the United States

Following these wartime experiences, which included fighting in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, Thau sought out immigration to the United States. The process Thau followed required the assistance from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee at Camp Saalgelden near Salzburg, with travel funding provided anonymously, provided to the Jewish Refugee Agency by a sponsoring lawyer in Sheboygan, Wisconsin—David Rabinowitz.

USS General MB Stewart

Thau arrived in New York on September 7, 1951 aboard the USS General M. B. Stewart, staying in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and later settling in Milwaukee Wisconsin. He adopted the name Charles Thau, became an auto mechanic, and later owned multiple automotive garages in Milwaukee. It was there during a routine dental x-ray that the Berlin machine gun bullet fragment, lodged in his jaw since 1945, was removed. Thau married Ida (nee Faich) and had three children, Martin, Jeffrey and Esther.

Public Recognition

In 1955, Thau shared his wartime experiences—including the Elbe River link-up and his combat injury—in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal. He largely avoided discussing his past until later in life, with his role at the Elbe River becoming more published since the joint U.S.–Russian commemorations in the 2010s. His youngest son, Jeffrey Thau, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, participated in several commemorative events honoring his father in Torgau, Germany.

Charles Thau passed away in 1995.

Supporting Sources

Thau’s life and wartime experiences have been featured in several publications and broadcasts, including:

• Der Spiegel (2025)

• The Milwaukee Journal (1955, 2015)

• Dayton Daily News (2015)

• Freie Presse (2015)

• German Public Radio (WDR, 2025)

• The Forward (2025)

His story illustrates the trajectory of many Holocaust survivors who participated in resistance efforts, aided refugee migration, and later contributed to life in the diaspora.

External links

• Chaim Thau at Find a Grave

This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.

Categories:

• 1921 births
• 1995 deaths
• Holocaust survivors
• Soviet military personnel of World War II
• Jewish partisans
• Red Army officers of World War II
• Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust
• People associated with World War II photographs
• Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust
• Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union to the United States
• Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United States
• American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
• American auto mechanics
• People from Zabolotiv
• People from Milwaukee, Wisconsin