10 Must Brutal Acts Of Revenge In History

4. After Discovering More Than 2,000 Bodies In Rail Cars At Dachau Concentration Camp, American Soldiers Machine-Gunned Up To 500 SS Guards

Considering that at least 35,000 inmates perished at Dachau Concentration Camp during the Holocaust, it seems strange that the murder of less than 500 SS Guards would make such headline news - but the fact American liberators executed them with machine guns meant it was considered a war crime.

Once the camp in south-east Germany was liberated in April 1945, American soldiers from the 45th Infantry Division found more than 2,000 bodies stuffed into 39 train cars on the rails just outside - and this, coupled with the devastation they discovered within the compound itself, unleashed a brutal reaction.

Up to 30 SS Guards were lined up along a wall in the coal yard - and executed by machine-gun fire, without trial, although the person who pulled the trigger claimed they had tried to escape. Other killings supposedly took place elsewhere in the camp too, mostly by machine-gun fire.

Yet it did not stop there - because allegedly some of the 35,000 liberated inmates were given handguns by the US soldiers. They then tortured and killed a number of SS officers - including some being beaten to death with shovels and hammers, and one man even torn apart by some of the inmates.

These incidents did not come to light until official documents were released during the early-2000s, and they have since marred the liberation of the camp by US soldiers.