Charles Thau

Charles Thau (born Chaim Thau; 7 July 1921 – 2 April 1995) was a Polish-born Jewish resistance member and Red Army soldier during World War II. He served as a translator and front-line soldier in the Red Army and was photographed at the American-Soviet link-up at Torgau in April 1945, an event commemorated annually as Elbe Day.

Born in Zabłotów, Poland, Thau survived the Holocaust by fleeing into the Carpathian forests after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. He became a partisan and later joined the Red Army, where he was wounded multiple times in combat, including during the Battle of Berlin, and received the Medal "For Courage".

After the war, Thau was active in the Bricha movement in Austria, assisting Jewish displaced persons seeking to leave Europe. He immigrated to the United States in 1951 and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he raised a family, became a businessman, and owned several automobile repair garages.

His appearance in the widely reproduced 1945 photograph provides a visual link between his experience as a Jewish survivor and Soviet soldier and the Allied-Soviet cooperation at the close of World War II.

Early life and education Born Chaim Thau on 7 July 1921 in the shtetl of Zabłotów (present-day Zabolotiv, Ukraine) in eastern Poland, he grew up in an agrarian Jewish family. His father, Mordechai, was a merchant peddler operating from the family farm, while his mother, Esther, taught Yiddish, German, and Polish from their home, which also functioned as a small classroom. He had two younger brothers.

Zabłotów was a market town with roughly equal Jewish and Christian populations. Archival tax records place the Thau family among the more highly assessed households. In this multilingual environment, he became proficient in several languages.

alt=Map showing the division of Poland in 1939, with a demarcation line separating German and Soviet zones.

In September 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, leading to the partition of Poland at the outset of World War II. Zabłotów came under Soviet administration. Russian was subsequently mandated as the language of instruction in local schools. With unexpected Russian soldiers then stationed in Zabłotów, and Thau's interaction with the soldiers, Thau learned Russian which added to his existing knowledge of Polish, German, Yiddish, and Hebrew.

Contemporary accounts indicate that some residents initially welcomed the Soviets and perceived their presence as protective, but soon the region was incorporated into the Soviet system.

This environment of cultural diversity and relative stability would be abruptly shattered with the German invasion in 1941.

Nazi invasion and persecution

In June 1941, Nazi Germany violated the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact by invading the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. German and Hungarian forces occupied Zabłotów in early July 1941.

Persecution of the Jewish population intensified thereafter. In the latter half of 1941, German security forces and local collaborators helped carry out mass shootings as part of Einsatzgruppen operations. By the end of the year, approximately 1,100 of the town's roughly 2,700 Jewish residents had been killed.

alt=Black and white photo of people being loaded onto trucks under military supervision.

Most of the remaining Jewish residents were subsequently deported to extermination camps. Thau's parents and two younger brothers—Mordechai, Esther, Barrish, and Hershel—did not survive.

Hiding and partisan activity

With the destruction of his community underway, Thau's flight into the forests marked the beginning of a prolonged struggle for survival. His survival represents an anomaly in the broader history of the Holocaust, as only a small fraction of Jewish citizens in the region successfully escaped into the forests or integrated into active partisan formations.

In the forests, the ability to survive involved foraging, acquiring food from nearby farms, and using concealed dugouts (Zemlyanka) to endure winter conditions and avoid detection.

Thau later linked up with a childhood friend, another Jewish survivor, and the two operated together near the Romanian border.

According to Der Spiegel (2025) and The Forward (2025), Thau at times disguised himself as a Wehrmacht officer, using his fluency in German and procured uniforms to enter nearby towns in order to obtain food and medical care. Similar use of disguise has been documented among other partisan groups in comparable conditions.

Red Army service After more than a year in hiding, Thau was discovered by Soviet combatants operating in the region. He was initially suspected of being a Nazi collaborator or Wehrmacht deserter, reflecting broader Red Army suspicion of civilians emerging from occupied territories. Thau's fluency in German contributed to this suspicion. After demonstrating Russian proficiency as well, the suspicions were eased and archival Red Army records indicated Thau was integrated into their ranks on 10 July 1942 as a translator. His language skills were used for military interrogations and liaison duties.

During the Red Army's westward advance in 1944 and 1945, archival records identify Thau as a Guards sergeant rifleman in the 56th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 58th Guards Rifle Division. On 15 January 1945, Thau was wounded during offensive operations in Poland near a position identified in Soviet records as "Height 55.2."

According to the regimental award citation, after another machine-gun crew was taken out of action by enemy fire, Thau assumed operation of their heavy mounted weapon and opened sustained defensive counter fire against advancing German infantry, thereby enabling the continued advance of Soviet infantry. He was awarded the Medal "For Courage" by regimental order dated 20 January 1945.

Russian letter excerpt documenting Medal For Courage for bravery at Hill 55.2Less than a month later, Soviet medical records identify Thau as a crew commander in the 56th Guards Rifle Regiment when he sustained a through gunshot wound to the right iliac region on 9 February 1945 before being medically evacuated. He returned to frontline service 20 February 1945.

Russian medical archival extract – Thau was wounded on 9 February 1945 in the right abdomen evidenced by a pass-through gunshot, then released less than ten days later back to front lines.

As casualties among junior officers mounted, experienced enlisted soldiers were promoted. In this context, and according to later accounts, Thau was promoted in the field to lieutenant and assumed command of an anti-tank battery equipped with 76 mm divisional guns within the 58th Guards Rifle Division.

In April 1945, his division reached the Elbe River and took part in the Allied–Soviet link-up at Torgau before advancing toward Berlin. He was later wounded during street fighting in the Battle of Berlin. A bullet fragment remained lodged in his cheek until it was discovered and removed by a dentist in Milwaukee in 1951.

Elbe link-up (April 1945) By April 1945, Allied operational plans called for US forces advancing eastward to halt along the Elbe–Mulde line in preparation for contact with advancing Soviet formations, culminating in the link-up known today as commemorated as Elbe Day. The meeting between elements of the 58th Guards Rifle Division and the US 69th Infantry Division was one of several contacts establishing the Allied–Soviet link-up in central Germany.

alt=Black and white photo of a Soviet officer standing center-frame behind a handshake between a US and Soviet soldier on a wrecked bridge.

Thau appears in the reproduced photograph of the Allied–Soviet link-up, positioned at the center behind the handshake, looking directly into the camera. In the image, Thau is depicted wearing a standard Red Army field uniform (gymnastyorka Model 1943) with a sidearm carried in a belt holster. He is also shown wearing Soviet military decorations, including the Medal "For Courage" and the Medal "For Battle Merit". High-resolution reproductions show wound stripes (ranenie stripes) on his right chest, indicating injuries sustained prior to late April 1945.

Film from the camera was transmitted to the Associated Press, and were subsequently distributed and reproduced as headlines in newspapers. Later research on the event led to the correction of a long-standing misidentification of one of the American soldiers in the photograph.

Postwar activities After World War II, Thau returned to Zabłotów to search for his relatives. Finding no survivors among his immediate or extended family, he departed the region and relocated to Salzburg, Austria within the American occupation zone. There, he worked as an automobile mechanic while becoming an active operative in the clandestine Bricha network—an underground effort that facilitated the transit of Jewish Holocaust survivors out of post-war Europe.

Bricha operative Operating from the Salzburg region, including the displaced-persons camp at Saalfelden, Thau was involved in logistical operations supporting the movement of Jewish refugees across postwar Europe despite British immigration restrictions. His multilingual fluency and familiarity with regional geography significantly enhanced the efficacy of these clandestine transit routes despite restrictive British immigration policies.

Bricha operations in Austria were closely connected to the displaced-persons camp system established by Allied authorities, which concentrated large numbers of Jewish survivors in the American occupation zone. Camps in the Salzburg region, including Camp Saalfelden, functioned as staging centers where refugee groups were assembled, transportation arranged, and documentation prepared for movement across Alpine transit corridors into Italy and onward to Mediterranean ports.

Bricha unit at Camp Saalfelden, Austria, c. 1947–1948. See top row, third from right labeled "Chaim"

A contemporary photo collage from the late 1940s identifies Thau within the dedicated Bricha unit at Camp Saalfelden.

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 , then traveled to Sheboygan and later settled in Milwaukee.

Business career

After years shaped by war and displacement, Thau established a stable civilian life resettling in Milwaukee. Thau adopted the name Charles Thau and resumed work as an auto mechanic, a trade he had practiced in postwar Salzburg.

Thau (right) with assistant Glenn Retzlaff in the garage, c. late 1960s

From the early 1950s to the 1990s, he owned and operated multiple service stations, including several Phillips 66–branded locations in Milwaukee.

Thau's Phillips 66 Garage on Capital Drive, c. 1970sIndependent records from the early 1960s list his business at 433 South 6th Street. He later operated additional locations on West Greenfield Avenue and on Capital Drive. Thau's Brake & Muffler Shop at 43rd and Greenfield, c. 1980s

Thau used his multilingual abilities in Polish, Russian, Yiddish, German, and English to assist newly arrived immigrants from Europe. His garages served as gathering places for Milwaukee's postwar Jewish and European community, where he helped with translations, employment referrals, and introductions. As Thau's multiple Phillips 66 service stations grew across Milwaukee over several decades, he became an established local businessman. During this period Thau remained personally involved in daily operations and maintained close ties with his family and community.

Personal life

Thau married Ida, a first generation American of Russian descent, and they had three children: Martin, Jeffrey, and Esther.

In 1951, during a routine dental X-ray in Milwaukee, a bullet fragment from his wartime injury in Berlin was discovered still lodged in his jaw and was surgically removed.

Photographs from the 1960s and 1970s document his family life during the period he operated his businesses in Milwaukee. Charles Thau died on 2 April 1995, several weeks before the 50th anniversary of Elbe Day.

Legacy Thau's life encompassed Holocaust survival, Jewish partisan resistance, decorated Red Army service, postwar Bricha activities, and eventual resettlement and business life in the United States. His wartime experiences were documented in a 1955 interview with the Milwaukee Journal.

His appearance in Allan Jackson's widely reproduced photograph of the American-Soviet link-up at Torgau provides a lasting visual record of his wartime service. The photograph became an enduring symbol of cooperation between American and Soviet forces in the final weeks of World War II. Thau is noted by the city of Torgau each Elbe Day, along with other known soldiers in the photo. Since his passing, Thau’s youngest son USAF colonel Jeff Thau, represents his father at the Torgau Elbe Day ceremonies. Also historically noteworthy, a bas-relief at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. ensures the linkup endures through history .

As later historical accounts noted, the photograph also came to hold particular significance in narratives of Jewish survival on both sides of the bridge. Thau, a Jewish survivor serving with the Red Army, appears at one end of the bridge, while Bernard E. Kirschenbaum, also Jewish, appears at the other end of the bridge. In a striking convergence of circumstance, the two men were thus brought together from both sides of the bridge in the waning hours of the fascist regime—one whose overarching ambitions included world domination and the systematic extermination of Europe’s Jews.

Thau's appearance in the photograph, together with his documented wartime and postwar activities, has preserved his place in the historical record of both the Elbe link-up and the experiences of Jewish survivors of World War II.