Many years ago I spoke with a man who was in the US Army and present at the liberation of Dachau. We had been talking about something else when I saw his framed photo in an Army uniform on a table. When I asked about it he told me what it had been like for him and he didn’t get too far before he began crying. It started with a few tears, then progressed to heartbreaking sobs. He recalled the terrible conditions, the dead bodies, all of it. And he was as grief stricken all those years later as he was when he first viewed the terribleness of Nazi rule. I’ll never forget the things he told me or how deeply it still affected him, but I understood how that experience had shaped his life.
During the late 1970s, I worked with a veteran of the 90th Division who had helped liberate a death camp. He said they picked up a horrific smell that stayed with them until broke out of a forest. At that point they could see living skeletons hanging on to a fence. He said they broke down the gate and killed all of the Germans. They then used up all of their medical supplies. The Division set up a field hospital. He said the troops couldn’t hold down food for a week. They saw piles of gold teeth, hair and clothing. The people in the town said they didn’t know the camp was there.
When I was in catholic high-school as a freshman in 1967. Our art teacher showed us the films of these camps during film class. I was shocked and I learned it early. Every highschool should be required to show this.
It was my great honor to have known a man who was in the forces that liberated the Mauthausen Camp, on May 8th, 1945. His recollections were chilling. Rest in Peace, George Chester Bradley.
Many years ago I spoke with a man who was in the US Army and present at the liberation of Dachau. We had been talking about something else when I saw his framed photo in an Army uniform on a table. When I asked about it he told me what it had been like for him and he didn’t get too far before he began crying. It started with a few tears, then progressed to heartbreaking sobs. He recalled the terrible conditions, the dead bodies, all of it. And he was as grief stricken all those years later as he was when he first viewed the terribleness of Nazi rule. I’ll never forget the things he told me or how deeply it still affected him, but I understood how that experience had shaped his life.
During the late 1970s, I worked with a veteran of the 90th Division who had helped liberate a death camp. He said they picked up a horrific smell that stayed with them until broke out of a forest. At that point they could see living skeletons hanging on to a fence. He said they broke down the gate and killed all of the Germans. They then used up all of their medical supplies. The Division set up a field hospital. He said the troops couldn’t hold down food for a week. They saw piles of gold teeth, hair and clothing. The people in the town said they didn’t know the camp was there.
Same Eisenhower who starved as many as two million Germans to death in concentration camps after the war.
BTW, where are the memorials and reparations from jews to Western countries for saving them from the ebil nazis?
We have learned exactly nothing
When I was in catholic high-school as a freshman in 1967. Our art teacher showed us the films of these camps during film class. I was shocked and I learned it early. Every highschool should be required to show this.
It was my great honor to have known a man who was in the forces that liberated the Mauthausen Camp, on May 8th, 1945. His recollections were chilling. Rest in Peace, George Chester Bradley.
45th Infantry ~ 🇺🇲 ThunderBirds 🟥🟨
29 April 1945 “The Day of the Americans.”
Those camps were true horror!