ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The photograph is a jarring image that shows Nazi Party members, shovels in hand, digging up graves of American soldiers held as slaves by Nazi Germany during World War II.



Members of the Nazi Party are forced to dig up mass graves of U.S. soldiers while American GIs look on.



While the men dig up the site, U.S. soldiers investigating war crimes stand over them. Two crosses with helmets placed atop them -- the sign of a fallen soldier -- are visible. Two Germans are knee deep in mud. Another, with a handlebar mustache, has the look of a defeated man. The bodies of 22 American soldiers were found in at least seven graves, according to the photographer.



On the back of the photo is written, "Nazi Party members digging up American bodies at Berga."   Berga an der Elster was a slave labor camp where 350 U.S. soldiers were beaten, starved, and forced to work in tunnels for the German government. The soldiers were singled out for "looking like Jews" or "sounding like Jews," or dubbed as undesirables, according to survivors. More than 100 soldiers perished at the camp or on a forced death march.



It was on this day six decades ago, April 23, 1945, when most of the slave labor camp soldiers were liberated by advancing U.S. troops. The emaciated soldiers, many weighing just 80 pounds, had been forced by Nazi commanders to march more than 150 miles before their rescue.  Watch survivor break down in tears over liberation »



The new photograph was likely taken in May or June 1945 when U.S. war crimes investigators combed Berga. It was donated earlier this month to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by Jim Martin and his family, whose father, Elmore "Bud" Martin, is believed to have snapped the picture as part of the war crimes investigation team.



The photo and dozens of others sat for years in Jim Martin's closet. Some of the photos, including graphic images of American corpses, were placed on record at the National Archives years ago.  See shocking photos of the slave camp »



But the image of Nazi Party members digging up graves doesn't appear to be part of that collection. Martin said he was proud to hand over the photos.



"People have to see these. This is something that's history and it belongs with something that's historical to tell that story. It doesn't belong in my closet."



"To be honest, I'm kind of sorry I haven't done it sooner. We didn't realize what it was."



Elmore Martin, who won a Silver Star for his valor in capturing images during the war, was 28 when he shot the photographs. Before the war, he worked as a photographer for the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press. Martin's son said his dad, who died several years ago, struggled to keep a job when he returned home. "I now see where it all started," he said.



What Elmore Martin and the war crimes soldiers seen in the photo couldn't have known that day was how the case would evolve.



The two Berga commanders -- Erwin Metz and his superior, Hauptmann Ludwig Merz -- were tried for war crimes and initially sentenced to die by hanging. But the U.S. government commuted their death sentences in 1948, and both men were eventually released in the 1950s. One other Berga commander, Lt. Willy Hack, was executed, but not by the United States. He died by hanging, justice carried out by the Soviets.



Jim Martin said his father would have been upset at the freeing of the Berga commanders after the atrocities he documented. "He knew it happened and to see that these people were released would be pretty devastating."



Efraim Zuroff, who has spent nearly 30 years hunting Nazis responsible for the Holocaust, said the U.S. government commuted the sentences and freed hundreds of war criminals like those at Berga after the war, as the Cold War began to intensify.



"They were more concerned about keeping out Communists than admitting victims of the Nazis
Where is the museum? where was the photo donated to? who had the the slave labor camp? Where is the camp located?
U.S. U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum German government. Berga an der Elster
question: Where is the museum?, answer: U.S. | question: where was the photo donated to?, answer: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum | question: who had the the slave labor camp?, answer: German government. | question: Where is the camp located?, answer: Berga an der Elster