The Day the Generals Cried
Even the hardest soldiers were unprepared of what they encountered in Germany in 1945.
The army led by General Patton arrived at a camp known as Ohrdruf, just outside Weimar at the end of World War II. What they noticed the first was the terrible smell. Then they looked upon heaps of dead bodies--prisoners starved or shot. Some of the survivors were in a death rattle and were feeble. Also crematoriums remained where the bodies were cremated by the Nazi regime as a mode of concealing their atrocities. Patton was a war-weary man and could not look away. there was nothing that could aid in foreseeing such evil.
General Eisenhower heard about it, and immediately proceeded to the camp. He was furious. No words could describe the horrificness. He instructed all American soldiers that were not on the battlefield to pay a visit. He had also compelled local German civilians to go out and view what had occurred. Eisenhower wanted the truth to be perceived by all.
This wasn’t just history. It existed, it was horrible, and permanent. The Holocaust was not a narrative- it was an admonition. Eisenhower ensured that the world will never forget by ensuring that people witness it with their own eyes.
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