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Temporary Identification Card for a Liberated Prisoner from the Mauthausen Concentration Camp 22 May 1945 - Temporary Identification Card for a Liberated Prisoner from the Mauthausen Concentration Camp Issued by the United States Army following the liberation of the camp. 22 May 1945. English and German. Provisional Identification Card for Civilian Internee of Mauthausen — a bilingual (English–German) identification card issued shortly after the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp by the U.S. Army. The card is completed in manuscript and was issued to a Jewish prisoner named Yada Arcadie. According to the entry, he was imprisoned in the Tilling subcamp between 15 April and 5 May 1945. The card bears a handwritten signature and official stamps of the camp commander. Paper document, 14.5 × 20.5 cm. Condition: Good. Folding marks and creases. Light stains. Minor tears at the margins and along the folds, reinforced. Historical background: On 3 May 1945, the last SS personnel fled the Mauthausen concentration camp. Several days later, the camp and its many affiliated subcamps were liberated by units of the U.S. Army’s 11th Armored Division. The Americans quickly established an emergency system for food distribution, medical care, hospitals, and treatment for typhus, and reorganized life in the camp to enable the rapid rehabilitation of the prisoners. A central component of the American effort was a system for identifying and registering the liberated prisoners, intended to facilitate their repatriation to their countries of origin. As part of these efforts—an important element of the Allied policy regarding the treatment of displaced persons—the prisoners were classified by country of origin and issued temporary identification documents, such as the card presented here. A powerful and significant historical artifact, bearing direct witness to the transitional moment between the horrors of imprisonment and the beginning of liberation, recovery, and return to life after the Holocaust.