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Witness to History
Hell Before Their Very Eyes: American Soldiers Liberate Concentration Camps in Germany, April 1945
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.
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.
216 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2015
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403 people want to read
About the author
John C. McManus
24 books198 followersJohn C. McManus is an author, military historian and award-winning professor of military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He is one of America’s leading experts on the history of modern American soldiers in combat.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 30, 2022
Hell Before Their Very Eyes: American Soldiers Liberate Concentration Camps in Germany, April 1945 is an engrossing tale of suffering and vengeance.
After writing monumental, all-encompassing volumes on WW2, John McManus switched to a more narrow topic of concentration camps' liberation by Americans in April 1945. The book studies three centers: Ohdruf (a satellite of Buchenwald), Buchenwald, and Dachau. In great detail, the author describes how the initial miscomprehension of the atrocities gradually transformed into horror. Many Americans considered concentration camps mere propaganda tools of their own country. What they saw, however, during the liberation became their nightmares, something far worse than fighting on the frontline. Some succumbed to anger, killing surrendered SS guards. Others idly stood while prisoners massacred the most hated KAPO.
The book is a chain of successive liberations demonstrating the scale of the inhumanity of SS guards who thought of prisoners as animals. In addition to the horrible conditions, like lack of bathing facilities or hard labor, prisoners were the victims of medical experiments: physicians tested the limits of human bodies by putting prisoners into cold water. Untreated typhus, dysentery, and pneumonia ran rampant among the inmates, while the high command, like Buchenwald's Karl Koch and his wife Ilse, enjoyed life to its fullest.
Rather than present dry historical research, the author enlivens the story by using a multitude of memoirs of American soldiers and survivors. The book contains numbers, but they do not overwhelm or confuse readers: vivid descriptions will be forever stuck in readers' minds.
Hell Before Their Very Eyes is definitely worth reading. Unlike other books on concentration camps, it looks at history from a different angle, showing what Americans (and generally, the outside world) thought about the camps before and after the liberation.
(I listened to an audiobook. Unfortunately, GR doesn't have a book cover for the audio version. Thus, I am leaving my review under the hardcover edition.)
After writing monumental, all-encompassing volumes on WW2, John McManus switched to a more narrow topic of concentration camps' liberation by Americans in April 1945. The book studies three centers: Ohdruf (a satellite of Buchenwald), Buchenwald, and Dachau. In great detail, the author describes how the initial miscomprehension of the atrocities gradually transformed into horror. Many Americans considered concentration camps mere propaganda tools of their own country. What they saw, however, during the liberation became their nightmares, something far worse than fighting on the frontline. Some succumbed to anger, killing surrendered SS guards. Others idly stood while prisoners massacred the most hated KAPO.
The book is a chain of successive liberations demonstrating the scale of the inhumanity of SS guards who thought of prisoners as animals. In addition to the horrible conditions, like lack of bathing facilities or hard labor, prisoners were the victims of medical experiments: physicians tested the limits of human bodies by putting prisoners into cold water. Untreated typhus, dysentery, and pneumonia ran rampant among the inmates, while the high command, like Buchenwald's Karl Koch and his wife Ilse, enjoyed life to its fullest.
Rather than present dry historical research, the author enlivens the story by using a multitude of memoirs of American soldiers and survivors. The book contains numbers, but they do not overwhelm or confuse readers: vivid descriptions will be forever stuck in readers' minds.
Hell Before Their Very Eyes is definitely worth reading. Unlike other books on concentration camps, it looks at history from a different angle, showing what Americans (and generally, the outside world) thought about the camps before and after the liberation.
(I listened to an audiobook. Unfortunately, GR doesn't have a book cover for the audio version. Thus, I am leaving my review under the hardcover edition.)
April 19, 2023
Ok maybe I should read non fiction more often
December 15, 2024
My goodness.
April 11, 2025
A powerful account of the United States Army’s liberation of Nazi concentration camps, focusing on the U.S. soldiers from the 89th Infantry Division and the 4th Armored Division.
*full review to come momentarily*
*full formal book analysis was written*
April 7, 2018
Well stated reminder of what occurred and how easily it has been and can be discounted as non-factual. Anyone denying these events now chooses to live in ignorance for malign goals most likely; however, in the not to distant future more could believe it never occurred without effective recounting of the events.
January 1, 2024
I read this as a bit of research for a work-in-progress and it delivered adeptly on what's promised in the title. That it's a disturbing read should go without saying. That combined with the somewhat narrow historical focus makes this not a book I'm likely to generally recommend to most people, but hey, if you really want to stare into the core of humanity's capacity for evil, look no further. Wish it was a tad longer/more detailed, but good all the same.
January 18, 2024
This book was so informative and it really helped you understand just how horrifying the things US soldiers saw were. The inhumane treatment of Jews, POWs, and political enemies of the Nazi regime is horrifying. This book is a great narrative of recollections of people who saw the barbaric conditions firsthand when liberating the camp. This book contributes to an important category of non-fiction and helps put the holocaust denying to bed.
October 18, 2020
It was an interesting read, detailed well in many areas. But after a while it became repetitive with witnesses essentially describing the same horrific scenes using different words.
I purchased the hardcover copy but was disappointed by the $50 price tag for a 155-page book that doesn't even come with a jacket/cover.
I purchased the hardcover copy but was disappointed by the $50 price tag for a 155-page book that doesn't even come with a jacket/cover.
July 20, 2020
Highly readable military history and the sort that is oh so important to combat ignorance of both the fact of the Holocaust and why it is considered part of American history. I’m grateful for this book and saddened by the stories left unfinished and unheard.
July 21, 2020
I read a lot on this subject and it was interesting to see it written from the liberating soldiers perspective rather than the traditional concentration camp victim's. It is worth a read to gain a well rounded experience of what took place. Recommend.
October 4, 2020
Excellent a Book
It tells the story of what the GIs found when they liberated two of the Nazi death camps. It describes the response by the GIs as well as those imprisoned there. We must never forget.
It tells the story of what the GIs found when they liberated two of the Nazi death camps. It describes the response by the GIs as well as those imprisoned there. We must never forget.
January 8, 2021
An important book. I would have liked it to focus more on the Soldiers and the people they liberated, rather than so much about the military stuff: re: this regiment did this and this commander did that, etc. Not a pleasant book to read but very important.
July 24, 2018
One of the most revealing accounts I've ever read, of the soldiers who liberated the Nazi concentration camps. Nightmarish and honest.
March 18, 2021
The best part of this book was the emphasis on documenting the Holocaust and particularly the liberation and stories of those who witnessed the absolute degradation of humanity.
April 29, 2021
Focuses mainly on Ohrdruf, Buchenwald, and Dachau, but elaborates on the post-war period of Dachau and the liberators in the years after.
July 5, 2022
This is very graphic and difficult to read at times but absorbing at the same time. Glad I found this one in Audible Plus. Happy reading and listening!
May 30, 2023
This book is a hard read about a despicable time in human history. All those poor people who were killed by the nazi machine and soldiers who first encounter the camps
February 17, 2025
Wow!! Really well written and detailed.
March 22, 2025
Stories and reflections from U.S. soldiers who liberated three German concentration camps.
May 24, 2025
Well written, gives a clear idea of the camps that the US liberated.
February 25, 2017
I purchased this book when the author spoke in St. Louis in July 2016. His presentation was interesting and hit on the highlights of the book. Over the weekend of Feb18-19, 2017, vandals knocked over headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery in St. Louis, where I live. It was time to pull out the book and read it.
I enjoyed the book and learned a lot about the 3 concentration camps which were highlighted: Orhdruf, Buchenwald, and Dachau. It's a very sobering reminder of what humans can do to each other. I also learned that Joseph Pulitzer, editor of our hometown paper The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, played a critical role in sharing the stories from Germany including playing an instrumental part in creating a display of photos from the camps and sharing "moving pictures" of the atrocities. In fact, over 80,000 people in St. Louis attended the moving pictures at Kiel Auditorium despite criticisms that the general public should not see such misery.
My criticisms are minor:
1. More photos! I know we've seen a lot of photos of the Holocaust but, in my opinion, we need the constant reminder, especially in this era of "post-truth" and Holocaust denial.
2. I would have liked more stories about the doctors and nurses who treated the liberated prisoners. There were a few in the book, but, since the book was about first-hand witnesses to the atrocities of the camps, understanding what the doctors and medical staff went through and observed would have been a welcome addition. I think the author intended to focus the book primarily on the stories of the first GI's to the camps, but the medics were not far behind and I think their stories should have been considered. The book left me with the impression that there are not many documented stories about the liberators' experiences, so that may be the reason why the medical personnel are not included. It also may be a false impression on my part.
I have ties to WWII through my father (a navigator on B-17's flying out of England) and my uncle (who was part of the group who liberated Nordhausen), so my interest in these topics in high. However, I do recommend the book from a historical perspective and as a way to keep the memory alive about the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. I hope to run across more stories from other GI's who liberated other camps in my reading future.
I enjoyed the book and learned a lot about the 3 concentration camps which were highlighted: Orhdruf, Buchenwald, and Dachau. It's a very sobering reminder of what humans can do to each other. I also learned that Joseph Pulitzer, editor of our hometown paper The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, played a critical role in sharing the stories from Germany including playing an instrumental part in creating a display of photos from the camps and sharing "moving pictures" of the atrocities. In fact, over 80,000 people in St. Louis attended the moving pictures at Kiel Auditorium despite criticisms that the general public should not see such misery.
My criticisms are minor:
1. More photos! I know we've seen a lot of photos of the Holocaust but, in my opinion, we need the constant reminder, especially in this era of "post-truth" and Holocaust denial.
2. I would have liked more stories about the doctors and nurses who treated the liberated prisoners. There were a few in the book, but, since the book was about first-hand witnesses to the atrocities of the camps, understanding what the doctors and medical staff went through and observed would have been a welcome addition. I think the author intended to focus the book primarily on the stories of the first GI's to the camps, but the medics were not far behind and I think their stories should have been considered. The book left me with the impression that there are not many documented stories about the liberators' experiences, so that may be the reason why the medical personnel are not included. It also may be a false impression on my part.
I have ties to WWII through my father (a navigator on B-17's flying out of England) and my uncle (who was part of the group who liberated Nordhausen), so my interest in these topics in high. However, I do recommend the book from a historical perspective and as a way to keep the memory alive about the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. I hope to run across more stories from other GI's who liberated other camps in my reading future.
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April 6, 2016Review by Steven A. Luel for the Jewish Book Council.
July 6, 2016
A good reminder of what can happen when people let despots rule and ignore or tolerate hatred.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews