35 A year after arriving in France, fighting across Germany, liberating the Dachau Concentration Camp and occupying Vienna, Austria, for post war duties, 60 Soldiers of the 42nd Infantry Division’s 222nd Infantry Regiment celebrated Christmas 1945 by singing.
The Soldiers belonged to the 222nd Infantry Glee Club and their singing took place in the Great Hall of Vienna’s Konzerthaus. The Christmas night program, called “Silent Night, Holy Night,” was one of the highlights of the glee club’s six-month existence.
The 222nd Infantry was part of the American occupation force in Austria’s capital and the regimental glee club, encouraged by music loving officers in the 42nd Division, was part of the various activities taken up by American Soldiers still overseas after the war’s end.