Charles Thau: Difference between revisions

Polish-born Red Army officer (1921–1995)

Charles “Charlie” Thau (born Chaim Thau; 7 July 1921 – 2 April 1995) was a Polish-born Red Army officer, known for his appearance in the Elbe Day photograph, taken during a staged re-enactment of the 25 April 1945 meeting between Soviet troops and soldiers of the U.S. 69th Infantry Division at the Elbe River near Torgau, Germany.

Born in Zabłotów (now Zabolotiv, Ukraine), Thau survived the German invasion of 1941 by hiding in the Carpathian forests. He subsequently joined the Red Army as a translator and served as a lieutenant with the 58th Guards Rifle Division. He was present at the Elbe link-up and the Battle of Berlin, where he was wounded in combat.

After World War II, Thau joined the clandestine Bricha movement in Austria, assisting Jewish survivors in relocating from displaced-persons camps to Palestine. He immigrated to the United States in 1951, settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and operated several Phillips 66 service stations under his own name.

Thau’s wartime experience, particularly his appearance in the Elbe meeting, has been commemorated in studies of Elbe Day and in U.S.–Russian diplomatic observances. For years, the American soldier standing beside Thau in the famous photo was misidentified, a historical error that was officially corrected in 2008 to identify T/Sgt. Bernard Kirschenbaum. Thau died in Milwaukee weeks before the 50th anniversary of the Elbe link-up in 1995.

Early life and education

Charles Thau (born Chaim Thau) was born on 7 July 1921 in the shtetl of Zabłotów in eastern Poland and was raised in an agrarian Jewish family. His father, Mordechai, worked as a peddler based at the family farm, and his mother, Esther, taught Yiddish, German, and Polish from their home, which also served as a small classroom. Thau had two younger brothers. Growing up in Zabłotów, a market town in Eastern Poland with roughly equal Jewish and Christian populations, he became fluent in several languages.^{[note 1]}

In September 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which led to the partition of Poland at the outset of World War II. Zabłotów then came under Soviet administration.^[12][13][14] During the Soviet occupation (1939–1941), local schools adopted Russian as a language of instruction, expanding Thau’s linguistic knowledge beyond his existing proficiency in Polish, German, Yiddish, and Hebrew.^[15] Contemporaneous accounts note that while some residents initially viewed the Soviet presence as protective, full integration of eastern Poland into the Soviet system soon followed.

Nazi invasion and persecution

In June 1941, Nazi Germany violated the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. German forces occupied Zabłotów in June 1941.^[17] The local collaborators committed growing atrocities toward the Jewish population through the Fall, culminating in the most severe mass killings of the Jewish population with the Einsatzgruppen by years end.^[18][19] By the end of 1941, approximately 1,100 of Zabłotów’s estimated 2,700 Jews had been executed.^[19]

Most of the remaining Jewish residents were deported to extermination camps. Thau’s father, mother, and two younger brothers — Mordechai, Esther, Barrish, and Hershel — did not survive.^[19] According to the survivor account “The Destruction of Our Community,” besides Thau only five other Jewish residents of the town are known to have survived the war.

Hiding and partisan activity

Thau escaped into the nearby Carpathian forests, where he hid for about 19 months. He survived by foraging, as described for other partisans, and by occasionally sheltering in barns. For most of this period, he used the terrain to prepare camouflaged dugouts (zemlyankas, землянка), concealed to endure winter conditions and avoid detection.^[17] He later linked up with another Jewish survivor, a childhood friend, and formed a small partisan group for survival and resistance near the Romanian border.

Retrospective reporting by Der Spiegel and The Forward (2025) states that on occasion Thau disguised himself as a Wehrmacht officer, using his fluency in German and a procured uniform to enter a nearby city to obtain food and medical treatment.

Introduction to Red Army service

In mid-1943, when Red Army combatants discovered Thau in the woods, they initially suspected him of being a Nazi collaborator—possibly a Wehrmacht deserter—because of his fluent German. After he demonstrated fluency in Russian as well, he was integrated into their ranks as a translator. His language skills made him valuable in interrogations and liaison duties between units of the 1st Ukrainian Front. Subsequently, he was commissioned as a lieutenant and assumed command of an anti-tank battery armed with four 76 mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) pieces, attached to the 58th Guards Rifle Division of the 1st Ukrainian Front.

Battle of Berlin

Nearing the final weeks of the war, the 58th Guards Rifle Division advanced toward Berlin and fought in street-to-street combat. Thau sustained a machine-gun wound to his jaw—his second combat injury of the war. A bullet slug from that wound remained unknowingly lodged in his cheek for over six years before being surgically removed after its discovery during a dental examination in Milwaukee in 1951.

Before Thau headed to Berlin, his 58th Guards Rifle Division stopped at the Elbe River, and was among the first Red Army formations to encounter Western Allied forces, specifically the 69th Infantry Division, at the Elbe River on 24 April 1945.

Elbe River link-up (April 1945)

The meeting between the 58th Guards and the 69th Infantry symbolized the operational link-up between Eastern and Western Allied forces. Thau appears in the staged re-enactment of the encounter, positioned in the center behind the handshake and looking directly into the camera.

The image shows Thau wearing a standard Red Army field uniform (gymnastyorka Model 1943) with a sidearm in a belt holster.^{[note 2]} Thau is also wearing Soviet military decorations, including the Medal “For Courage” and the Medal “For Battle Merit”. Film from the camera that captured the handshake was transmitted to the Associated Press, and one of the photographs appeared on the front page of The New York Times on 25 April 1945.

Misidentification of American soldier

Beginning in the early 1990s, the tall American soldier on the far left of the photograph was officially identified as Delbert Philpott, a misidentification that persisted through high-profile diplomatic commemorations. In September 2008, following an investigation by Thau’s son, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, he notified officials from the 69th Infantry Division Association, together with Torgau historian Dr. Uwe Niedersen, who then formally reviewed and corrected the historical record.^[32]

The soldier was positively identified as T/5 Bernard E. Kirschenbaum. ^[34] The misidentification had persisted despite earlier evidence; during the 50th anniversary in 1995, Kirschenbaum visited Torgau and signed the guestbook identifying himself in the photograph, but the entry went unnoticed. As the misidentification remained uncorrected, Philpott was publicly recognized as the American soldier in the image and appeared as an honoree alongside Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin in Moscow as late as 2005. The 2008 review amended the historical record, acknowledging Kirschenbaum’s identity and formally resolving a decades-long case of mistaken identity within one of World War II’s most recognizable images.
^[35]

Postwar activities

After the war, Thau returned briefly to Zabłotów. Upon learning that his immediate family had perished, he did not remain. He became involved in Bricha operations based in Austria and later immigrated to the United States, where he raised a family and became a business owner.

Bricha operative

Thau relocated to Salzburg, Austria, where he worked as an automobile mechanic while participating in the underground Bricha network. The Bricha organization helped Holocaust survivors and other displaced refugees reach British-administered Palestine. From Camp Saalfelden near Salzburg, Thau and his colleagues facilitated transport, clandestine border crossings, and the preparation of forged documents to move refugees across the Alps. Refugees then traveled by ferry to bypass British controls and enter Mandatory Palestine.

Immigration

Recalling what soldiers of the 69th Infantry Division had told him at the Elbe link-up about life in America, Thau sought help from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee at Camp Saalfelden to immigrate to the United States. They assisted him in securing a sponsor, as prospective immigrants were required to have one. Attorney David Rabinowitz of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, was identified as his sponsor.

Thau arrived in New York on 7 September 1951 aboard the USS General M. B. Stewart, then traveled to Sheboygan and later settled in Milwaukee.^[40]

Business career

After resettling in Milwaukee, Chaim Thau adopted the name Charles Thau and resumed his trade as an auto mechanic, a skill he had practiced in post-war Salzburg. From the early 1950s through the 1990s, Thau operated multiple service stations which expanded into a series of Phillips 66–branded filling stations across the city.

By 1955, Thau was already established as a gas station operator in Milwaukee. ^{[note 3]} Independent records from the early 1960s list his business, Thau’s 66 Service Station, at 433 South 6th Street.^[42] He later established Thau’s Garage at 4229 West Greenfield Avenue and operated another Phillips 66 station on West Capitol Drive.^[43]

His service stations became neighborhood fixtures, providing mechanical work and fuel typical of Phillips 66 outlets. Thau often used his multilingual skills—Polish, Russian, Yiddish, German, and English—to assist newly arrived immigrants from Eastern Europe. His garages informally served as gathering places for Milwaukee’s post-war Jewish and Central European community, where he helped with translations, employment referrals, and introductions. Even as his business grew, Thau remained personally involved in daily operations and maintained close ties with his family and community.

• 

  Thau at his auto garage, Milwaukee, c. 1985

• 

  Thau’s Brake & Muffler Shop (Phillips 66), c. 1980s

Personal life

Thau worked long hours while raising a family. He married Ida (née Faich); they had three children:
Martin, Jeffrey, and Esther.

In 1951, during his first routine dental X-ray in Milwaukee, a slug fragment from his Berlin wound was discovered still lodged in his jaw and was surgically removed, six years after he was wounded.

Family photographs from the 1960s show Thau with his sons socializing in a Milwaukee home during the period when he was operating and growing his Phillips 66 service stations.

Legacy and recognition

In 1955, Thau described his wartime experiences in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal.

The Elbe Day photograph featuring Thau has appeared in U.S.–Russian diplomatic observances. In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint declaration citing the Elbe meeting as a symbol of wartime cooperation. The event has also been acknowledged by Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Mikhail Gorbachev. The Elbe Day image even inspired a bas-relief sculpture at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Thau’s son, retired U.S. Air Force colonel Jeff Thau, has attended subsequent anniversaries of the link-up at Torgau.

Charles Thau died on 2 April 1995, prior to the 50th anniversary of Elbe Day.

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Haynie, Oren (22 April 2025), “Hidden in a Famous WWII Photo: Two Heroic Jewish Stories”, The Forward, retrieved 24 July 2025
• Wilms, Carolin (24 April 2015), “Spirit of the Elbe”, Dayton Daily News, retrieved 24 July 2025
• Military History Now (6 July 2017), “The Faces of WWII: The Extraordinary People in 11 of the War’s Most Famous Photographs”, Military History Now, retrieved 20 July 2025
• Milwaukee Journal (1 May 1955), “Gas Station Operator Recalls U.S.–Russ Union”, The Milwaukee Journal, p. 193, retrieved 2 July 2025
• Brecher, Michael; Wilkenfeld, Jonathan (1997), A Study of Crisis, University of Michigan Press, p. 255, ISBN 0-472-10806-9
• Levine, Allan (2010), Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War, Lyons Press, p. 44, ISBN 978-1-4617-5005-5
• Bronstein, Shalom (2025), “Biographical Dictionary of Jewish Resistance”, JewishGen, retrieved 16 February 2025
• Pogue, Forrest (1990), “22”, The Decision to Halt at the Elbe, Center of Military History, U.S. Army
• White House (25 April 2005), “President Welcomes Presidents of the Russian Federation”, White House Archives
• Friedman, Thomas L. (9 May 1995), “Clinton and Yeltsin Honor Dead in Berlin”, The New York Times, retrieved 23 July 2025
• Obama White House (7 May 2010), “Joint Statement by President Obama and President Medvedev on the 65th Anniversary of the End of WWII”, White House Archives, retrieved 24 July 2025
• Gorbachev, Mikhail (1996), Memoirs, Doubleday, p. 112, ISBN 9780385480192
• Nehari, Miri (24 April 2015), “The Association”, Ha Bricha Association, retrieved 16 February 2025
• U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (7 September 1951). “USS General MB Stewart Manifest 7 Sept 1951 Arrival NY, NY”. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
• The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle (21 April 1995), “Obituary for Charles Thau”, The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, Milwaukee, p. 22
• Central Intelligence Agency (1955), “Clothing and Individual Equipment — Soviet Army (Declassified CIA Handbook)”, CIA Reading Room, Central Intelligence Agency

• Schöne, Günter; Philpott, Delbert E.; Niedersen, Uwe, eds. (1995), Down by the Riverside: Die Botschaft von der Elbe, 1945–1995 (in German), Leipzig: Thom Verlag

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External links