General Dwight D. Eisenhower made a point of visiting a Nazi concentration camp after hearing reports of its horrors.
In a letter to Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall after visiting Ohrdruf in April 1945, Eisenhower wrote:
“I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a 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.”
He ordered the evidence of Nazi crimes to be thoroughly documented through photographs, films, and eyewitness testimony. He also invited members of Congress, journalists, and other Allied leaders to visit the camps themselves so they could bear witness firsthand and help ensure that the truth could never be dismissed as propaganda. Never forget.
Photo: Prisoners at the Ebensee concentration camp in Austria shortly after its liberation by US troops, May 1945.
