Jewish partisan; Bricha operative; U.S. businessman
Charles "Charlie" Thau (born Chaim Thau; 7 July 1921 – 2 April 1995) was a Polish-born Jewish partisan and Red Army lieutenant who appears in one of the most reproduced photographs of the Allied–Soviet link-up at the Elbe River on 25 April 1945. The staged image, taken near Torgau, became an enduring symbol of cooperation between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.[1][2][3][4]
After surviving 19 months hiding in the Carpathian forests following the German invasion, Thau joined the Red Army in 1943, serving as a translator and later commanding an anti-tank battery in the 58th Guards Rifle Division of the 1st Ukrainian Front. He participated in the Elbe meeting and the Battle of Berlin, where he sustained one of several combat wounds. He received the Medal "For Courage"[a] and the Medal "For Battle Merit".
Postwar, Thau worked clandestinely with the Bricha movement in Austria, aiding Holocaust survivors’ emigration to Palestine. He immigrated to the United States in 1951, settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and became a successful auto-repair businessman. In 2008, prompted by his son, the 69th Infantry Division Association formally corrected a long-standing misidentification of the American soldier in the Elbe photograph.[5][6][7]
Early life and education
Charles Thau (born Chaim Thau) was born on 7 July 1921 in the shtetl of Zabłotów in eastern Poland and was raised in an agrarian Jewish family. His father, Mordechai, worked as a merchant peddler based at the family farm, and his mother, Esther, taught Yiddish, German, and Polish from their home, which also served as a small classroom. Thau had two younger brothers.[8]
Archival tax records list the Thau family among the higher tax-paying households in Zabłotów, a market town in eastern Poland with roughly equal Jewish and Christian populations. This environment contributed to Thau’s fluency in several languages. [9][10][b]
Polish demarcation line following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, 1939Residents speak with a Red Army soldier, 1939
In September 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact,[11] which led to the partition of Poland at the outset of World War II. Zabłotów then came under Soviet administration.[12][13][14] During the Soviet occupation (1939–1941), local schools adopted Russian as a language of instruction, expanding Thau’s linguistic knowledge beyond his existing proficiency in Polish, German, Yiddish, and Hebrew.[10][15] Contemporaneous accounts note that while some residents initially viewed the Soviet presence as protective, full integration of eastern Poland into the Soviet system soon followed.[16]
Nazi invasion and persecution
In June 1941, Nazi Germany violated the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.[11] German forces occupied Zabłotów in June 1941.[17] The local collaborators committed growing atrocities toward the Jewish population through the Fall, culminating in the most severe mass killings of the Jewish population with the Einsatzgruppen by years end.[18][19] By the end of 1941, approximately 1,100 of Zabłotów’s estimated 2,700 Jews had been executed.[19]
Jews transported, 1941–1942, Zabłotów area
Most of the remaining Jewish residents were deported to extermination camps. Thau’s father, mother, and two younger brothers — Mordechai, Esther, Barrish, and Hershel — did not survive.[1][19] According to the survivor account “The Destruction of Our Community,” besides Thau only five other Jewish residents of the town are known to have survived the war.[1]
Hiding and partisan activity
Thau escaped into the nearby Carpathian forests, where he hid for about 19 months. During this period, he conducted underground sabotage and survival actions against the Nazis and their local collaborators [20]. He survived by foraging, as described for other partisans [21], and by occasionally sheltering in barns. He also used the terrain to prepare camouflaged dugouts (zemlyankas, землянка), concealed to endure winter conditions and avoid detection.[17] He later linked up with another Jewish survivor, a childhood friend named Moshe, and formed a small partisan group for survival and resistance near the Romanian border.[22]
Retrospective reporting by Der Spiegel (2025) and The Forward (2025) states that on occasion Thau disguised himself as a Wehrmacht officer, using his fluency in German and a procured uniform to enter a nearby city to obtain food and medical treatment.[22][23]
Red Army service
In mid-1943, when Red Army combatants discovered Thau in the woods, they initially suspected him of being a Nazi collaborator—possibly a Wehrmacht deserter—because of his fluent German.[24] After he demonstrated fluency in Russian as well, he was integrated into their ranks as a translator.[2] His language skills made him valuable in interrogations and liaison duties between units of the 1st Ukrainian Front.[25] Subsequently, he was commissioned as a lieutenant and assumed command of an anti-tank battery armed with four 76 mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) pieces, attached to the 58th Guards Rifle Division [c] of the 1st Ukrainian Front.[26]
Battle of Berlin
Nearing the final weeks of the war, the 58th Guards Rifle Division advanced toward Berlin and fought in street-to-street combat.[27] In Berlin, Thau sustained a machine-gun wound to his jaw, one of several combat injuries he suffered during the war. A bullet slug from that wound remained unknowingly lodged in his cheek for over six years before being surgically removed after its discovery during a dental examination in Milwaukee in 1951.[28][29]
Before Thau headed to Berlin, his 58th Guards Rifle Division stopped at the Elbe River and was among the first Red Army formations to encounter Western Allied forces, specifically the 69th Infantry Division, at the Elbe River on 24 April 1945.[4]
Elbe River link-up (April 1945)
The meeting between the 58th Guards and the 69th Infantry marked the operational link-up between Eastern and Western Allied forces.[4][30] Thau appears in the widely circulated staged re-enactment, positioned in the center behind the handshake and looking directly into the camera.[2]
Thau at center behind handshake facing camera
The image shows Thau wearing a standard Red Army field uniform (gymnastyorka Model 1943) with a sidearm in a belt holster.[31][d] Thau is also wearing Soviet military decorations on his left chest, including the Medal "For Courage" and the Medal "For Battle Merit".
On his right chest, high-resolution imagery has been interpreted as showing three red wound stripes (ranenie stripes), signifying he was wounded multiple times prior to the Elbe River link-up.[32][e]
Film from the camera that captured the handshake was transmitted to the Associated Press. One of the photographs appeared on the front page of The New York Times on 25 April 1945.[30]
Misidentification of American soldier
Beginning in the early 1990s, the tall American soldier on the far left of the photograph was officially identified as Delbert Philpott, a misidentification that persisted for more than a decade. The identification was published in Torgau historiography, including the 2007 third revised edition of Elbe Begegnung – Link-Up. [33][34]
In May 2005, Philpott participated in the 60th anniversary observances in Moscow attended by Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin; the 69th Infantry Division Association bulletin covering the event identified him as one of the American soldiers from the Elbe link-up photograph.[35] In September 2005, a NASA Ames Research Center newsletter identified Philpott as the soldier depicted in the April 25, 1945 Elbe photograph and captioned him “second from left.” [36]
The misidentification persisted despite earlier contrary evidence. During the 50th anniversary in 1995, Bernard E. Kirschenbaum visited Torgau, signed the guestbook identifying himself in the photograph, and challenged the attribution; the entry and challenge were not acted upon.[23] In September 2008, after assembling supporting documentation, Thau’s son notified the 69th Infantry Division Association and Torgau historian Dr. Uwe Niedersen.[37] The Association conducted a formal review and issued a correction recognizing the proper identification.[37][38]
The soldier was subsequently confirmed as T/5 Bernard E. Kirschenbaum.[39] The 2008 review amended the historical record, formally resolving the longstanding case of mistaken identity.[4]
Postwar activities
After the war, Thau returned briefly to Zabłotów. Upon learning that his immediate family had perished, he did not remain.[40] He became a clandestine Bricha operative based in Austria and later immigrated to the United States, where he raised a family and became a business owner.[41]
Bricha operative
Thau relocated to Salzburg, Austria, where he worked as an automobile mechanic while participating as an operative in the underground Bricha network.[5] The secret Bricha organization helped Holocaust survivors and other displaced refugees reach British-administered Palestine.[7]
Bricha unit at Camp Saalfelden, Austria, c. 1947–48. Thau shown top row, third from right.
From Camp Saalfelden near Salzburg, Thau and his colleagues—shown in a contemporary commemorative collage—facilitated transport, clandestine border crossings, and the preparation of forged documents to move refugees across the Alps. [5] Refugees then traveled by ferry to bypass British controls and enter Mandatory Palestine.[42]
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.[43]
After resettling in Milwaukee, Chaim Thau adopted the name Charles Thau and resumed his trade as an auto mechanic, a skill he had practiced in post-war Salzburg.[3]
Delbert Philpott, who was long misidentified as the American soldier in the photograph, lived for several years in Milwaukee near Thau’s service stations, just blocks away from Thau's automobile repair garages.[45]
From the early 1950s through the 1990s, Thau owned and operated multiple service stations, eventually expanding to several Phillips 66–branded locations across the city.[46][47]
Charles Thau (right) and his assistant Glenn Retzlaff, c. 1970Thau's Phillips 66 Garage, Capital Drive circa 1970s
By 1955, Thau was already established as a gas station operator in Milwaukee.[3][f] Independent records from the early 1960s list his business, Thau’s 66 Service Station, at 433 South 6th Street.[48] He later established Thau’s Garage at 4229 West Greenfield Avenue and operated another Phillips 66 station on West Capitol Drive.[49]
His service stations became neighborhood fixtures, providing mechanical work and fuel typical of Phillips 66 outlets. Thau often used his multilingual skills—Polish, Russian, Yiddish, German, and English—to assist newly arrived immigrants from Eastern Europe. His garages informally served as gathering places for Milwaukee’s post-war Jewish and Central European community, where he helped with translations, employment referrals, and introductions.[41] Even as his business grew, Thau remained personally involved in daily operations and maintained close ties with his family and community.[41]
Thau at his auto garage, Milwaukee, c. 1985
Thau’s Brake & Muffler Shop (Phillips 66), c. 1980s
Personal life
Thau (right) and two sons Jeff (center) and Martin (left), March 1965.
Thau worked long hours while raising a family. He married Ida (née Faich); they had three children: Martin, Jeffrey, and Esther.[29]
In 1951, during his first routine dental X-ray in Milwaukee, a slug fragment from his Berlin wound was discovered still lodged in his jaw and was surgically removed, six years after he was wounded.[28]
Family photographs from the 1960s show Thau with his sons socializing in a Milwaukee home during the period when he was operating and growing his Phillips 66 service stations.[37]
Charles Thau died on 2 April 1995, several weeks before the 50th anniversary of Elbe Day. [6]
Legacy
In 1955, Thau discussed his wartime experiences in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal.[3] The Elbe Day photograph in which Thau appears has been referenced in official U.S.–Russian commemorations marking the end of World War II in Europe.
U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin have issued a joint declaration citing the Elbe meeting as a symbol of wartime cooperation between their nations.[50] Similar references to the Elbe link-up were made during commemorations under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.[51][52][53]
For the 2008 Elbe Day anniversary, the City of Torgau held commemorative events acknowledging Thau’s life history and his role culminating in that wartime photograph.[20] Diplomatic representatives from Russia, the United States, and Germany attended the ceremony [45]
Since Thau’s passing, he was represented at multiple Elbe Day anniversary events by his son retired USAF colonel Jeff Thau.[54][20]
↑The Medal "For Courage" (Medal 'Za otvagu') was the highest-ranking "personal" gallantry medal in the Soviet award system for junior officers. Unlike campaign medals, it was awarded for specific acts of bravery and is considered the Soviet equivalent to the U.S. Silver Star.
↑During the interwar years, Zabłotów’s Tuesday markets connected surrounding agrarian families with Jewish merchants and craftsmen. The town’s population was multilingual, speaking Polish, Yiddish, Ukrainian, and German, reflecting the diverse demographics of Galicia. "Zablotov (in Jewish Galicia & Bukovina)". Jewish Galicia and Bukovina. JGB Organization. Retrieved 24 July 2025.; "Galicia". YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
↑The "Guards" (Gvardiya) designation was an elite status bestowed upon Soviet units that distinguished themselves in major combat operations. The 58th Guards earned this title following the encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. For a junior officer like Thau, serving in a Guards unit implied participation in high-tempo offensive operations under the 1st Ukrainian Front's strategic objectives.
↑Red Army equipment manuals describe such holsters as typical issue for officers and personnel assigned command or liaison responsibilities. (Central Intelligence Agency 1955)
↑The three stripes visible in the photograph represent injuries sustained prior to late April 1945; they are distinct from the well-documented machine-gun wound to the jaw he sustained during the subsequent Battle of Berlin, which left a bullet fragment in his cheek until its removal in 1951. Soviet regulations distinguished between "light" wounds (dark red stripes) and "serious" wounds (gold stripes). Thau also displays a diamond-shaped Guards Badge on the right side of his tunic, identifying his service in the elite 58th Guards Rifle Division.
↑The earliest site of Thau’s garage was located at 59th and Lisbon Avenue. (Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle 2025)
↑Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR No. 213 (14 July 1942): "On the establishment of insignia for military personnel of the Red Army wounded in battles."
• Levine, Allan (2010), Fugitives of the Forest, Lyons Press, p.44
• Military History Now (6 July 2017), "The Faces of WWII", Military History Now{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Milwaukee Journal (1 May 1955), "Gas Station Operator Recalls U.S.–Russ Union", The Milwaukee Journal, p.193{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• NASA Ames Research Center (2005), "Retired NASA scientist finds place in history twice", Astrogram, p.7
• Nehari, Miri (24 April 2015), "The Association", Ha Bricha Association{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Niedersen, Uwe, ed. (2007), Elbe Begegnung: Link-Up (3rd rev. and exp.ed.), Torgau: Förderverein Europa Begegnungen e.V.
• Obama White House (25 April 2010), "Joint Statement on the 65th Anniversary of Elbe Day", White House Archives{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Pogue, Forrest C. (1990), The Supreme Command, Center of Military History, United States Army
• Schöne, Günter, ed. (1995), Down by the Riverside: Die Botschaft von der Elbe, 1945–1995 (in German), Leipzig: Thom Verlag
• State Archive of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (1939), Tax records of Zabłotów (interwar period), Ivano-Frankivsk{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Thau, Jeffrey (June 2008), "Memories of a Handshake across the Elbe River Remain 63 Years Later", The Jewish Veteran, vol.61, no.3, pp.9, 25{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle (21 April 1995), "Obituary for Charles Thau", The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, p.22{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Zaffern, Bernard H. (2005), "Moscow Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of V-E Day", Fighting 69th Infantry Division Association Bulletin, 58 (3): 9–11
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