Bibliograph

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

Type

Label

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

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Hell before their very eyes

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

907585014

Responsibility statement

John C. McManus

Series statement

Witness to history

Sub title

American soldiers liberate concentration camps in Germany, April 1945

Summary

On 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. These men discovered the very depths of human-imposed cruelty and depravity: railroad cars stacked with emaciated, lifeless bodies; ovens full of incinerated human remains; warehouses filled with stolen shoes, clothes, luggage, and even eyeglasses; prison yards littered with implements of torture and dead bodies; and perhaps most disturbing of all the half-dead survivors of the camps. 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 often-overlooked aspect of the Holocaust. Drawing on a rich 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.--, Provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

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

Creator