Charles Thau (born Chaim Thau; 7 July 1921 â 2 April 1995) was a Polish-born Jewish resistance member and Red Army soldier during World War II.
He appears at the center of the widely reproduced 1945 photograph âÂÂEast Meets WestâÂÂ, taken during the AlliedâÂÂSoviet link-up at the Elbe River on 25 April 1945.
Born in Zabà Âotów, Poland, Thau survived the Holocaust by fleeing into the Carpathian forests after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. He became a partisan, then joined the Red Army on 10 July 1942 as a translator, and later became a Guards sergeant in the 56th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 19th Guards Rifle Division. Thau was wounded in combat, awarded the Medal "For Courage", and later field-commissioned as a lieutenant, commanding an anti-tank battery in the final stages of the war, including the Battle of Berlin, where he was wounded a second time.
After the war, Thau was active in the Bricha movement in Austria, assisting Jewish displaced persons seeking to leave Europe. He immigrated to the United States in 1951 and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he raised a family, became a businessman and owned several automobile repair garages.
ThauâÂÂs notoriety is his image centered in the historic âÂÂEast Meets Westâ photo, where his name remained consistent in all published accounts. The misidentification of a US soldier in that same photograph brought renewed attention to the photograph and its participants.
Born Chaim Thau on 7 July 1921 in the shtetl of Zabà Âotów in eastern Poland, he grew up in an agrarian Jewish family. His father, Mordechai, worked as a merchant peddler based at the family farm, while his mother, Esther, taught Yiddish, German, and Polish from their home, which also functioned as a small classroom. He had two younger brothers.
Zabà Âotów was a market town with roughly equal Jewish and Christian populations. Archival tax records place the Thau family among the more highly assessed households. In this multilingual environment, Thau became proficient in several languages.
In September 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the MolotovâÂÂRibbentrop Pact, leading to the partition of Poland at the outset of World War II. Zabà Âotów came under Soviet administration. Russian was subsequently mandated as the language of instruction in local schools. Through interactions with stationed soldiers, Thau learned Russian, adding to his existing knowledge of Polish, German, Yiddish, and Hebrew.
Contemporary accounts indicate that some residents initially welcomed the Soviets and perceived their presence as protective, but soon the region was incorporated into the Soviet system.
In June 1941, Nazi Germany violated the MolotovâÂÂRibbentrop Pact by invading the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. German and Hungarian forces occupied Zabà Âotów in early July 1941.
Persecution of the Jewish population intensified. In the latter half of 1941, German security forces and local collaborators carried out mass shootings carried out by Einsatzgruppen operations.
By the end of the year, approximately 1,100 of the townâÂÂs roughly 2,700 Jewish residents had been killed.
Most of the remaining Jewish residents were subsequently deported to extermination camps. Thau's parents and two younger brothersâÂÂâÂÂdid not survive.
Following the German invasion in 1941, Thau fled into the Carpathian forests, where he initially hid. His experience was uncommon, as relatively few Jews escaped into forests or joined partisan formations after mass shootings and deportations.
In the forest, survival involved foraging, acquiring food from nearby farms, and using concealed dugouts (Zemlyanka) to endure winter conditions and avoid detection.
Thau later linked up with another Jewish survivor, a childhood friend, and the two operated together near the Romanian border.
Reports in Der Spiegel (2025) and The Forward (2025) report that Thau at times disguised himself as a Wehrmacht officer, using his fluency in German and a procured uniform to enter nearby towns in order to obtain food and medical care. Similar use of disguise has been documented among partisan groups in comparable conditions.
After more than a year in hiding, Thau was discovered by Soviet partisans operating in the region. He was initially suspected of being a Nazi collaborator or Wehrmacht deserter, reflecting broader Red Army suspicion of civilians emerging from occupied territories. ThauâÂÂs fluency in German contributed to this suspicion. After demonstrating proficiency in Russian as well, Thau was integrated into their ranks on 10 July 1942 as a translator. He used his language skills in interrogation and liaison duties.
During the Red ArmyâÂÂs westward advance in 1944 and 1945, archival records identify Thau as a Guards Sergeant rifleman in the 56th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 19th Guards Rifle Division.
On 15 January 1945, he was wounded during offensive operations in Poland near a position identified in Soviet records as âÂÂHeight 55.2.âÂÂ
According to the regimental award citation, after another machine-gun crew was disabled, Thau took over the mounted heavy weapon and laid defensive counter fire on advancing German infantry, helping advance Soviet forces. He was awarded the Medal "For Courage" by regimental order dated 20 January 1945.
As casualties among junior officers mounted, experienced enlisted soldiers were promoted.
In this context, Thau was field-commissioned as a lieutenant and assumed command of an anti-tank battery equipped with 76 mm divisional guns attached to the 19th Guards Rifle Division.
In April 1945, his division reached the Elbe River and took part in the AlliedâÂÂSoviet link-up before advancing toward Berlin. He was later wounded during street fighting in the Battle of Berlin. A bullet fragment remained lodged in his cheek until it was discovered and removed by a dentist in Milwaukee in 1951.
By April 1945, Allied operational plans called for U.S. forces advancing eastward to halt along the ElbeâÂÂMulde line in preparation for contact with advancing Soviet formations. The meeting between elements of the 19th Guards Rifle Division and the U.S. 69th Infantry Division was one of several contacts that established the AlliedâÂÂSoviet link-up in central Germany.
Thau appears in the reproduced photograph of the AlliedâÂÂSoviet link-up, positioned at the center behind the handshake, looking directly into the camera.
In the image, Thau is depicted wearing a standard Red Army field uniform (gymnastyorka Model 1943) with a sidearm carried in a belt holster. He is also shown wearing Soviet military decorations, including the Medal "For Courage" and the Medal "For Battle Merit". High-resolution reproductions show wound stripes (ranenie stripes) on his right chest, indicating injuries sustained prior to late April 1945.
Film from the camera was transmitted to the Associated Press, and one photograph appeared on the front page of The New York Times on 25 April 1945. Later research on the event led to the correction of a long-standing misidentification of one of the American soldiers in the photograph.
After World War II, Thau returned to Zabà Âotów to search for his relatives. Finding no survivors among his immediate or extended family, he departed the region and relocated to Salzburg, Austria, within the American occupation zone. There, he worked as an automobile mechanic while becoming an active operative in the clandestine Bricha networkâÂÂan underground effort that facilitated the transit of Jewish Holocaust survivors out of post-war Europe.
Operating from the Salzburg region, including the displaced-persons camp at Saalfelden, Thau was involved in logistical operations supporting the movement of Jewish refugees across postwar Europe despite British immigration restrictions. He helped coordinate routes and facilitate border crossings as part of the broader Bricha network. Bricha operations in Austria were closely connected to the displaced-persons camp system established by Allied authorities, which concentrated large numbers of Jewish survivors in the American occupation zone. Camps in the Salzburg region, including Camp Saalfelden, functioned as staging centers where refugee groups were assembled, transportation arranged, and documentation prepared for movement across Alpine transit corridors into Italy and onward to Mediterranean ports.
A contemporary photo collage from the late 1940s identifies Thau within the dedicated Bricha unit at Camp Saalfelden.
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.
Thau arrived in New York on 7 September 1951 aboard the , then traveled to Sheboygan and later settled in Milwaukee.
After resettling in Milwaukee, Thau adopted the name Charles Thau and resumed work as an auto mechanic, a trade he had practiced in postwar Salzburg.
From the early 1950s to the 1990s, he owned and operated multiple service stations, including several Phillips 66âÂÂbranded locations in Milwaukee.
By 1955, he was operating a service station in Milwaukee. Independent records from the early 1960s list his business at 433 South 6th Street. He later operated additional locations on West Greenfield Avenue and West Capitol Drive.
He used his multilingual abilities to assist newly arrived immigrants from Europe, including providing translation and informal assistance with employment and integration.
Thau married Ida (née Faich), and they had three children: Martin, Jeffrey, and Esther.
In 1951, during a routine dental X-ray in Milwaukee, a bullet fragment from his wartime injury in Berlin was discovered still lodged in his jaw and was surgically removed.
Photographs from the 1960s and 1970s document his family life during the period he operated his businesses in Milwaukee. Charles Thau died on 2 April 1995, several weeks before the 50th anniversary of Elbe Day.
Thau is primarily associated with the widely reproduced photograph of the AlliedâÂÂSoviet link-up at the Elbe River on 25 April 1945.
The Elbe meeting of 25 April 1945 is documented in a staged handshake photograph in which Thau appears. The image has been widely reproduced in historical accounts and referenced in diplomatic commemorations of Elbe Day as a representation of wartime cooperation between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union prior to the onset of Cold War tensions.
U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint declaration citing the Elbe meeting as a symbol of wartime cooperation. Similar references were made by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1955, Thau discussed his wartime experiences in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal. The Elbe Day event was later commemorated in a bas-relief sculpture at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., where the link-up is represented as a symbol of Allied cooperation.
The gracious city of Torgau and city officials have hosted commemorative events at which the photograph of the link-up was revered and recognized, with all visitors and guests respectively honored. The city stands on the world stage, shoulder to shoulder at each anniversary with all diplomatic representatives from Russia, the United States, and Germany who attend the Elbe Day anniversaries. Following his death, Thau has been represented at Elbe Day anniversary events by his youngest son, retired U.S. Air Force colonel Jeff Thau.
For many years, one of the American soldiers in the photograph was misidentified in both commemorations and Torgau historiography as Delbert Philpott, including during official 2005 60th-anniversary Elbe Day observances held in Moscow and attended by U.S. and Russian Presidents Bush and Putin.
In 2008, following a veteranâÂÂs testimony and archival review, the 69th Infantry Division Association finally corrected the identity of the soldier as Technician Fifth Grade Bernard E. Kirschenbaum. Kirschenbaum had actually challenged the Philpott identification in 1995 during a visit to Torgau, prior to the Moscow state dinner which honored the participants. Kirschenbaum also recorded his claim in the 1995 Torgau visitorsâ log, but it was not acted upon until 2008. Subsequent published historical accounts have documented the earlier misidentification and its correction.