Created in late 1917, the 4th Infantry Division served with distinction during World War I. On June 6, 1944 (D-Day), the "Ivy" division was the first U.S. unit to land on Utah Beach. Two months later, on August 25, 1944, it liberated Paris. In September, it crossed the border into Germany, fighting in the Hürtgen Forest and in the Battle of the Bulge. In late March 1945, the 4th crossed the Rhine River and a few weeks later captured the German city of Nuremberg. By the end of April, the unit had advanced deep into Bavaria.

During the march into southern Germany, the 4th discovered in late April 1945 the site of a Dachau subcamp near Haunstetten. Built to service a Messerschmitt aircraft plant, Haunstetten was one of the biggest subcamps in Nazi Germany. On April 13, 1944, Allied air attacks had destroyed the plant and the camp that serviced it.