Charles Thau

Charles 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 widely reproduced photographs of the Allied–Soviet link-up at the Elbe River on 25 April 1945.

The staged image, taken near Torgau, became a widely reproduced symbol of cooperation between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Thau survived for approximately nineteen months in hiding in the Carpathian forests. In 1943, after being discovered by Red Army combatants, he joined the Soviet Army, serving as a translator before being field-commissioned as a lieutenant in the 58th Guards Rifle Division of the 1st Ukrainian Front. He participated in the Battle of Berlin and was wounded in combat.

After the war, Thau became involved in the Bricha movement in Austria, assisting Holocaust survivors seeking to emigrate to British-administered Palestine. He immigrated to the United States in 1951, where he became an automobile service-station owner in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.