The Wilsey Collection

Captain David B. Wilsey, M.D., was born in Wisconsin in 1914. After receiving his medical degree to become an anesthesiologist, he joined the military during World War II to serve as an Army physician. At 30 years of age, he was one of 27 doctors who entered Dachau concentration camp during its liberation in late April of 1945. They spent the next month giving medical care to former prisoners.

The liberated prisoners were quarantined inside Dachau to wait for the allied commanders to see the atrocities, and to prevent the spread of disease. The American physicians and medical staff risked their lives to bring healing to the 30,000 Dachau survivors.

Dr. Wilsey’s children knew very little about his wartime experience. In 2009, when they were cleaning out the family home, they found for the first time a box of letters Dr. Wilsey had written to his wife Emily while he was in the service, including his time in France, greater Germany, and later, during Dachau's liberation. The letters had survived several moves and even a house fire. Dr. Wilsey asked his wife in several letters “to tell thousands so that millions will know what Dachau is and never forget the name of Dachau.”

This collection, presented by The Holocaust Center for Humanity, is a testament to that wish. The 280+ letters and other materials written by Dr. Wilsey are preserved for the first time online so that future generations will never forget.

Click here to watch the short Journeys to Seattle film about Dr. Wilsey, on display at the Holocaust Center for Humanity, which details his experiences during World War II and his postwar life and settlement in Washington.

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