Those who liberated the Nazi extermination camps firmly believed that the horrors that happened there needed to be witnessed widely, so they would never happen again.
https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1401701488414629894
In early August 1945, portions of the Third US Army came upon Ohrdruf, a Nazi labor camp and a subcamp within the larger Buchenwald system. 
Generals Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and George Patton toured the camp. The sights and smells of what had happened there -- torture, mutilation, murder -- were so overpowering that even a veteran soldier like Patton (on the left here at the camp) turned away and vomited.
The Army forced civilians from the town to come to the camp, to witness what had happened in their name and in their backyard, and to bury the dead.
For some, the reckoning with the truth was too much. The mayor of Ohrdurf and his wife, for instance, hanged themselves.
For some, the reckoning with the truth was too much. The mayor of Ohrdurf and his wife, for instance, hanged themselves.
But Ike didn't think only Germans needed to witness what fascism had wrought in their name.
He thought it was vital that Americans see it with their own eyes too. He ordered all available units in the area to tour the camp, and hoped congressmen and reporters would come too.
He thought it was vital that Americans see it with their own eyes too. He ordered all available units in the area to tour the camp, and hoped congressmen and reporters would come too.
Eisenhower understood that Americans needed to witness these horrors, to understand what had happened in Germany as a bulwark against it happening again elsewhere.
Sadly, it's a lesson more and more Americans have forgotten, as the war generation has passed from our midst.
Sadly, it's a lesson more and more Americans have forgotten, as the war generation has passed from our midst.
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