Military Accounts
Leon Bass, Sergeant, U.S. 3rd Army
"And then all of a sudden, slap, right in the face was the horror perpetrated by man against man... we must talk about the crematoriums. We must talk about the dead. We must talk about the denigration of human personalities."
- 1945 liberation of Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp
- 1945 liberation of Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp
Nicholas White, Sergeant, U.S. 7th Army
"But as we went into this first barracks, we were overrun almost by about twenty-five or thirty of these inmates, who came and hugged us and tried to show us the gratitude they had for us being there liberating them... we started to distribute [the biscuits] among these soldiers, or rather, these camp inmates. And the net result was all, we almost started a riot because they fought like animals trying to get anything that looked like food."
Pat Lynch, U.S. Army nurse
"They were so thin. I couldn’t pick any of them up. I tried to, but if I were to pick them up I’d tear the skin."
Kurt Gerstein, SS Officer
"Up till then people were alive in these chambers .. another 25 minutes went by. True, many were now dead. After 28 minutes, only a few were still alive. At last after 32 minutes, everyone was dead. Finally, all were dead like pillars of basalt, still erect, not having any place to fall."
"One could tell families even in death. They were still holding hands, stiffened in death so that it was difficult to tear them apart to clear the chamber for the next load."
- Gerstein's mission was to share with the world the atrocities of the Nazis
"One could tell families even in death. They were still holding hands, stiffened in death so that it was difficult to tear them apart to clear the chamber for the next load."
- Gerstein's mission was to share with the world the atrocities of the Nazis
Dr. Harold Herbst, New York City
"I heard a voice and I turned around and I saw a living skeleton talk to me...was talking to me, and he said, "thank God the Americans have come."
- Herbst describes his findings at Buchenwald
- Herbst describes his findings at Buchenwald
