Waubonsee Community College

Hell before their very eyes, American soldiers liberate concentration camps in Germany, April 1945, John C. McManus

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Hell before their very eyes

bibliography

907585014

John C. McManus

Witness to history

American soldiers liberate concentration camps in Germany, April 1945

"April 4, 1945, United States Army units from the 89th Infantry Division and the 4th Armored Division seized Ohrdruf, the first of many Nazi concentration camps to be liberated in Germany. In the weeks that followed, as more camps were discovered, thousands of soldiers came face to face with the monstrous reality of Hitler's Germany. For the American soldiers of all ranks who witnessed such powerful evidence of Nazi crimes, the experience was life altering. Almost all were haunted for the rest of their lives by what they had seen, horrified that humans from ostensibly civilized societies were capable of such crimes. Military historian John C. McManus sheds new light on this aspect of the Holocaust. Drawing on a blend of archival sources and thousands of firsthand accounts--including unit journals, interviews, oral histories, memoirs, diaries, letters, and published recollections--Hell Before Their Very Eyes focuses on the experiences of the soldiers who liberated Ohrdruf, Buchenwald, and Dachau and their determination to bear witness to this horrific history."--Publisher information

Prologue: Germany, 1945 -- Encountering Ohrdruf -- "The smell of death was thick in the air": witnessing Buchenwald -- Treating Buchenwald: medicine and Murrow -- Dachau: the approach -- "My heart was going a mile a minute": liberating Dachau -- Dachau: the impact -- Epilogue