Posted on 04/15/2010 2:10:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The 120 veterans wore red, white and blue tags emblazoned with the word "Liberator" and crept along on walkers. Others could hardly hear as they toured the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday. But the memories of the atrocities they witnessed in the waning months of World War II -- when soldiers from several armored and infantry divisions liberated concentration camps throughout Germany and Austria -- remained achingly clear.
Some attending what museum officials said is one of the largest gatherings of liberators ever held remembered cremation ovens were still warm, ashes fuzzing the foul air. Stacks of bodies on railroad cars. How their hearts ached when commanding officers forbade them from passing along rations to the starving people, for fear the rich food would sicken them further.
Fletcher Thorne-Thomsen said he would never forget one emaciated man who was so happy to see the American he tried to hug him with fragile arms.
"I can still see a pair of eyes," he said. The man's look was penetrating. It's haunted him for 65 years.
Thorne-Thomsen, 87, is among the dwindling number of soldiers who helped liberate death camps in World War II and who traveled to Washington for this week's National Days of Remembrance, which will culminate in a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Thursday. Museum officials said that given the advancing age of many of the men -- most are in their late 80s or older -- it could be one of the last gatherings of its kind.
"They have a story of enormous importance to share with new generations . . . and so we wanted for one last time to bring them all together," said Sara J. Bloomfield, the director of the museum, where historians spent time this week capturing some of their stories
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Did Barack tell them how his Communist uncle did that for Stalin’s Red Army?
For we who do not know history - are bound to rpeat it and/or stand by and let it happen again.
A few days ago I watched the film that was shown into evidence at Nuremburg.
Or, I should say I watched about half of it. I simply couldn’t take it.
The men who liberated these camps showed restraint beyond words. Perhaps they were just tired of death, but I would have been tempted to go to the nearest German town and level it
Look into how we dealt with the Werewolves.
Heroes all of them. How dare Obama try to break a great friendship that was forged under such circumstances?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv-Th1blvQ4
Thank you one and all who bore witness to the unthinkable.
What was the name of the film? I’m not sure I could watch it either, but it is history that must not be forgotten.
RIP Pop is right, what a wonderful tribute to your grandfather.
Holocaust deniers be damned.
I’m trying to figure out how your post fits with this story?
Unfortunately, I have just had him committed to a end-stage care facility as his mind has lost it's moorings over just 3 weeks. My sadness is only tempered by my pride in his accomplishments, National Guard enlistee to Bird Colonel, CIB for WW2 and Korea, Purple Heart 4 times, Bronze Star with "V", Silver Star and Legion of Merit. He led his men from the front and has been honored by them ever since. It is not RIP but when dementia strikes, the ruin makes one weep!
As for the liberation it is well that Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower ordered maximum documentation of the horrors of this "Hell on Earth". As he so presciently saw, without such documentation, these nightmares would be doubted and then forgotten in mere generations. Kudos to such foresightedness!
It has aways surprised me that we (British and Americans troops)did not
"The file entitled "Nazi Concentration Camps" was entered as evidence at the 1945 Nuremberg Trials of Hermann Goring, Rudolf Hess, and 22 other Nazi officials at the end of World War II. It presented a stark picture of the atrocities of the Holocaust and ensured than no one would ever doubt the meaning of the charge "crimes against humanity."
I should say: THESE LINKS ARE 100% GRAPHIC AND HORRIFYING IN THE EXTREME - THIS IS RAW, UNCENSORED FOOTAGE, TAKEN BY THE ALLIED FORCES, OF NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS AS THEY EXISTED WHEN THEY WERE LIBERATED.
Eisenhower also ordered that the German citizens be put on clean up detail in the concentration camps so that it would be harder for them to deny the Holocaust. Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence that Germany wiped out most of the European Jews, some people today still allege that the Holocaust never happened.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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