Remembering the Holocaust, 75 years later
Liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
With the current pandemic we thank those who are helping us get through it. We salute all those essential workers. We are forever grateful for your bravery and spirit to serve others.
This April marks a scary time for our country in many ways. The coronavirus has many suffering physically, emotionally and financially.
But it also reminds of us of a past only 75 years ago this month that we should never forget.
Today, we pause to commemorate the Holocaust and remember the victims, survivors and rescuers. We remember their lives, some which ended much too soon, and are determined that an event of this magnitude will never again happen. It has been seventy-five years since the liberation of the concentration camps.
We can learn from the actions of people who helped those in danger during the war, and from the actions of United States Army Soldiers who helped liberate the camps. Their actions went beyond military boundaries to a fundamental understanding of human decency.
As the Allies began moving through occupied countries, they began discovering the concentration camps. Over the course of a year, they liberated prisoners, giving them food, medical attention and whatever help they could provide.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Army’s Center of Military History have recognized 36 U.S. Army divisions for their heroism, gallantry, and help in liberating prisoners from brutal Nazi rule. The first concentration camp to be liberated by U.S. troops was Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald. The 4th Armored Division liberated the camp on April 4, 1945.
By April 12, General Dwight D. Eisenhower had visited the camp and described what he saw to General George C. Marshall, Jr., saying, “I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’”
Dwight D. Eisenhower watches as survivors of Ohrdruf demonstrate torture methods used at the camp. Photo courtesy Eisenhower Library.
Eisenhower anticipated a time when people would deny the Holocaust happened. A few days later on April 19, Eisenhower told Marshall in a cable that, “Whatever has been printed on them to date has been understatement. If you would see any advantage in asking about a dozen leaders of Congress and a dozen prominent editors to make a short visit to this theater in a couple of C-54s, I will arrange to have them conducted to one of these places where the evidence of bestiality and cruelty is so overpowering as to leave no doubt in their minds about the normal practices of the Germans in these camps.”
Later, Eisenhower said, “When I found the first camp like that I think I never was so angry in my life… I think people ought to know about such things.”
The U.S. Army Signal Corps, who documented the military campaign, also recorded approximately 80,000 feet of moving film, together with still photographs, of conditions at concentration camps. About 6,000 feet of that film footage was used to create a one hour documentary. Prosecutors used the film to prove that Nazi leaders on trial at Nuremberg had perpetrated unbelievably heinous crimes.
The Congressional mission, which included American press, supported the reports of war correspondents and the military. Without photos and testimony from those present, many people would not have believed the horrors that had taken place at the Nazi camps, and how the brutality went beyond religion, nationality or politics.
When the concentration camps were liberated, Army Soldiers brought medical care, food and clothes. And they brought hope. On May 5, 1945, the 11th Armored Division liberated Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where 150,000 prisoners were killed.
The surviving prisoners used sheets and jackets to make a United States flag as a gift to the American Soldiers. The prisoners could not remember how many stars the United States flag had, so they made their flag with 56 stars. Colonel Richard Seibel ordered that the Mauthausen 56-star flag immediately replace the Nazi swastika flag.
Mauthausen prisoner Simon Wiesenthal later said, “I barely weighed 90 pounds that day, and like so many others, I was too weak to walk. But seeing the American flag rekindled something in each of us. Every star on the American flag stood for something precious we had lost: One for hope, one for freedom, one for justice…”
This flag is preserved so that future generations will know its story and understand the emotions that it represents. It stands today as a witness to the liberation of Mauthausen at the Simon Wiesenthal Center here in Los Angeles.
It’s hard to listen to some of the things that happened during the Holocaust, but we can learn lessons from looking beyond labels, whether religious, political or national. I challenge everyone in our community – military and civilian – to remain vigilant. Reject all forms of prejudice. Refuse to participate in bigotry. Defend those who are persecuted.
The Army honors the individuals who took a stand during the Second World War, and it honors individuals today who take a stand against hatred, wherever we find it – in our work places, in our schools or on the battlefield. Please remember those who stood for goodness and decency and stand with them.
Mario A. Guerra is the former Mayor of Downey and current Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army. He can be reached at www.MarioAGuerra.com