Harry J . Collins Harry John Collins ( December 7 , 1895 – March 8 , 1963 ) , was an decorated Army Major General , who commanded 42nd Infantry Division ( " Rainbow " ) during World War II . Biography . He was born on December 7 , 1895 in Chicago , Illinois . He attended the Western Military Academy and University of Chicago where , upon graduation in 1917 , he received commission into the United States Army and assigned to the 3rd Infantry Regiment . He subsequently served on the Mexican Border at Eagle Pass , Texas . Served in a variety of assignments in the US and overseas during World War I , most notably on staff at the Infantry School at Fort Benning . In August 1942 , was named assistant division commander of the 99th Infantry Division at Camp Van Dorn , Mississippi . In April , 1943 , assumed command of the 42nd Infantry Division ( the famed Rainbow Division ) at Camp Gruber , Oklahoma . In December 1944 , the division arrived in France and played a major role in stopping the last German drive into Western Europe , known as the Battle of the Bulge . He was credited with the liberating of the Dachau concentration camp at the end of the war . Following V - E Day , the 42nd assumed occupation duty in western Austria , with Collins serving as military governor . In July 1948 , he was appointed commander of the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis , Washington , and later assumed command of New York - New Jersey area headquarters at Fort Totten , New York . In January 1951 , he was assigned to command the 8th Division at Fort Jackson , South Carolina . A year later he got assigned to the office of Military Attache in Moscow , USSR and then back to the US to command the 31st Infantry Division in Camp Atterbury , Indiana . He retired in 1954 and moved to Salzburg where he was an honorary citizen of Salzburg and Linz , where many Dachau survivors were initially transported after the liberation of the camp , along with his wife Irene Gehmacher . Irene was Austrian so he could not marry her being a US citizen and a general . Harry had his aid marry Irene , bring her to the US and divorce her so he could marry her as a new US citizen after divorcing his wife . He died on March 8 , 1963 and was buried at the Saint Peter ' s churchyard cemetery in Salzburg . Humanitarian . At war ’ s end , Collins was assigned the US Military Governorship of Austria . The Prisoner of War ( POW ) camp at , Austria also fell under the control of Collins and the 42nd Infantry Division . This camp housed German POWs – 30 , 000 women and 130 , 000 men . The German soldiers came largely from the Eastern Front , including the 1st Mountain Division , and some from the remnants of the German Balkan Army . The many women in the camp came from supply and communications units , as well as nursing units . In early May 1945 , Collins flew over the camp in his Piper Cub liaison plane , and told the POWs via loudspeaker that he would discharge them as soon as he could find newsprint to print discharge papers . He also told them that he had no food to feed them and that discharge would depend on their good behavior . Collins managed to keep the camp in good order without barbed wire and without guards . His promise of an early release if the POWs kept within the limits of the camp was enough to make things work . After ten days in camp , Collins began to process POWs out , as per the Geneva Convention . Collins had discharged 30 , 000 women , and perhaps 30 , 000 men , when U . S . General Dwight Eisenhower intervened , and ordered Collins to hand the remaining 100 , 000 POWs to the Soviets . In 1955 , German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer went to Moscow , to buy back the survivors of the camps in the Soviet Union . Ninety - five percent of the German POWs that Collins was forced to turn over to the Soviets did not survive those ten years in captivity . Without Collins ’ intervention ten years earlier , 60 , 000 additional POWs may have met this same fate . Controversy . Recent writers have found fault with Collins and other officers who performed occupation duty after World War II , suggesting that they requisitioned luxury items , from the Hungarian Gold Train , for furnishing their offices and quarters — items allegedly taken from Jewish families by the Nazis during the war . Many items were not returned to their original owners , who could not be located , but were later sold at auctions , with the proceeds used to aid war refugees . Popular culture . Was featured on the " History Channel ' s " segment of History ' s Mysteries on “ GI Looting ” during the Second World War . Decorations . Here is the ribbon bar of Major General Collins :