The men lived only one hour's drive from each other... but neither knew

This is the poignant moment when a man rescued from the hell he endured at the hands of the Nazis met his saviour and gave him a salute almost 70 years later.

Joshua Kaufman first saluted his rescuer Daniel Gillespie. Then he kissed his hand and finally, he fell to his feet, exclaiming: 'I have wanted to do this for 70 years. I love you, I love you so much...'.

Kaufman, now 87, was a 'walking corpse' on April 29 1945 when U.S. Army soldier Gillespie, 89, marched in with his comrades to liberate the charnel house that was the Dachau concentration camp near Munich.

Gillespie, a machine gunner with the 42nd 'Rainbow Division,' moved to block 11 of the infamous complex which was the first camp built by the Nazis to house its enemies in 1933.

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Salute: Nazi prisoner Joshua Kaufman (left) pays tribute to Daniel Gillespie (right), the American soldier who liberated him from the Dachau death camp

'I love you so much': It was an emotional reunion for both men. Kaufman kissed the hand of his rescuer and said: 'I have wanted to do this for 70 years. I love you, I love you so much'

Thank you: A clearly overwhelmed Kaufman fell at Gillespie's feet in gratitude when the two men were reunited in California for a television documentary

By the time it was liberated more than 35,000 people had been murdered there - in executions, in cruel medical experiments, starved, worked and beaten to death.

The first person he saw was Hungarian Jew Kaufman. He was hiding in the latrines with other prisoners, uncertain if the soldiers who arrived were liberators or a Nazi death squad sent to liquidate the camp.

'We were confined to barracks by the guards. This meant most of us were marked for death,' Mr Kaufman said.

'Then I saw the white flag flying from the watchtower and I realised then that the torture was at an end. When the Americans smashed in the door, my heart did somersaults.'

Gillespie helped the emaciated prisoner into the daylight and back into the land of the living. Both parted with tears in their eyes - both believed they would never see one another again.

Then and now: A youthful Joshua Kaufman is pictured (left) before he was condemned to Dachau concentration camp, and (right) as he is at the age of 87 today

Hero: American soldier Daniel Gillespie pictured (left) as a soldier and (right) as he is at the age of 87 today

My hero: Kaufman thanks Gillespie for saving his life. Recalling the moment he realised the camp had been liberated, Kaufman said: 'When the Americans smashed in the door, my heart did somersaults'

35,000 MURDERED IN 12 YEARS: THE NAZI HELL AT DACHAU Dachau, near Munich in Germany, was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis in 1933. It was opened by Heinrich Himmler, one of Hitler's most trusted commanders. More than 35,000 prisoners died there before it was liberated by US forces on April 29, 1945. After liberation, the camp was used by the US Army as an internment camp. It was also the site of the Dachau Trials, for German war criminals, between November 1945 and August 1948. In 2013, Angela Merkel made history when she became the first German chancellor to visit the former concentration camp, where she expressed "shame" at the crimes of the Nazi regime. The infamous wrought iron sign reading 'Arbeit Mach Frei' - which means 'Work makes you free' was stolen from the camp's gates in November 2014. Advertisement

Kaufman, who lost most of his family in the Holocaust, made it to Israel where he became a soldier who fought in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War.

He later emigrated to America where he married, fathered three daughters and became a self employed plumber.

Gillespie married, fathered eight children and built a career for himself as a successful salesman.

Amazingly, neither knew that they lived within an hour's drive of each other until a German documentary crew arranged their moving reunion on the sand at Hungtington Beach, California.

Accompanied by his youngest daughter Alexandra, 34, to the meeting, Joshua said: 'I came out of hell into the light. For that, and to him, I am eternally grateful.'

Gillespie, who had fought with his comrades through Europe to reach the gates of the Dachau camp, said: 'It was the most profound shock of my life. Its liberation changed my life forever.

'We could not understand it. I grew up in California where we had everything in abundance.

'We didn't get how people could let other people starve. They murdered them or just let them die. Again and again the questions moved through my head. And at the same time I was just incredibly angry.'

Gates to hell: The entrance to the Dachau concentration camp, where more than 35,000 people are believed to have died, bearing the infamous Nazi slogan 'Arbeit Mach Frei' which meands 'Work makes you free'

Torment: Pain is etched on the faces of prisoners inside Dachau in a picture believed to have been taken on the day the camp was liberated by American forces

When they were reunited, Gillespie asked Kaufman: 'How did you survive? What kept you alive?'

An emotional and overwhelmed Kaufman replied: 'Dying would have been easier. In Dachau we had to tote around 50 kilo cement sacks. The whole day long.

'Whoever broke down was immediately shot. I turned me into an animal. And animals want to survive. I wanted to live.'

He described how, to this day, he still sleeps on a thin mattress close to a window so he can gaze out at green grass every day.

The meeting, and their stories, will be told in a special for the History Channel Deutschland to be screened on May 31.

Kaufman had the last word on the beach when he said: 'I have everything I wanted in life through him. That is the reason for my thankfulness.'

Both men are old, both realise they will probably never see one another again.

But both said they were humbled by their meeting so many years after Nazism was crushed.