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The Liberators: America's Witnesses to the Holocaust
At last, the everyday fighting men who were the first Americans to know the full and horrifying truth about the Holocaust share their astonishing stories. Rich with powerful never-before-published details from the author’s interviews with more than 150 U.S. soldiers who liberated the Nazi death camps, The Liberators is an essential addition to the literature of World War II—and a stirring testament to Allied courage in the face of inconceivable atrocities.
Taking us from the beginnings of the liberators’ final march across Germany to V-E Day and beyond, Michael Hirsh allows us to walk in their footsteps, experiencing the journey as they themselves experienced it. But this book is more than just an in-depth account of the liberation. It reveals how profoundly these young men were affected by what they saw—the unbelievable horror and pathos they felt upon seeing “stacks of bodies like cordwood” and “skeletonlike survivors” in camp after camp. That life-altering experience has stayed with them to this very day. It’s been well over half a century since the end of World War II, and they still haven’t forgotten what the camps looked like, how they smelled, what the inmates looked like, and how it made them feel. Many of the liberators suffer from what’s now called post-traumatic stress disorder and still experience Holocaust-related nightmares.
Here we meet the brave souls who—now in their eighties and nineties—have chosen at last to share their stories. Corporal Forrest Robinson saw masses of dead bodies at Nordhausen and was so horrified that he lost his memory for the next two weeks. Melvin Waters, a 4-F volunteer civilian ambulance driver, recalls that a woman at Bergen-Belsen “fought us like a cat because she thought we were taking her to the crematory.” Private Don Timmer used his high school German to interpret for General Dwight Eisenhower during the supreme Allied commander’s visit to Ohrdruf, the first camp liberated by the Americans. And Phyllis Lamont Law, an army nurse at Mauthausen-Gusen, recalls the shock and, ultimately, “the hope” that “you can save a few.”
From Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany to Mauthausen in Austria, The Liberators offers readers an intense and unforgettable look at the Nazi death machine through the eyes of the men and women who were our country’s witnesses to the Holocaust. The liberators’ recollections are historically important, vivid, riveting, heartbreaking, and, on rare occasions, joyous and uplifting. This book is their opportunity, perhaps for the last time, to tell the world.
Taking us from the beginnings of the liberators’ final march across Germany to V-E Day and beyond, Michael Hirsh allows us to walk in their footsteps, experiencing the journey as they themselves experienced it. But this book is more than just an in-depth account of the liberation. It reveals how profoundly these young men were affected by what they saw—the unbelievable horror and pathos they felt upon seeing “stacks of bodies like cordwood” and “skeletonlike survivors” in camp after camp. That life-altering experience has stayed with them to this very day. It’s been well over half a century since the end of World War II, and they still haven’t forgotten what the camps looked like, how they smelled, what the inmates looked like, and how it made them feel. Many of the liberators suffer from what’s now called post-traumatic stress disorder and still experience Holocaust-related nightmares.
Here we meet the brave souls who—now in their eighties and nineties—have chosen at last to share their stories. Corporal Forrest Robinson saw masses of dead bodies at Nordhausen and was so horrified that he lost his memory for the next two weeks. Melvin Waters, a 4-F volunteer civilian ambulance driver, recalls that a woman at Bergen-Belsen “fought us like a cat because she thought we were taking her to the crematory.” Private Don Timmer used his high school German to interpret for General Dwight Eisenhower during the supreme Allied commander’s visit to Ohrdruf, the first camp liberated by the Americans. And Phyllis Lamont Law, an army nurse at Mauthausen-Gusen, recalls the shock and, ultimately, “the hope” that “you can save a few.”
From Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany to Mauthausen in Austria, The Liberators offers readers an intense and unforgettable look at the Nazi death machine through the eyes of the men and women who were our country’s witnesses to the Holocaust. The liberators’ recollections are historically important, vivid, riveting, heartbreaking, and, on rare occasions, joyous and uplifting. This book is their opportunity, perhaps for the last time, to tell the world.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published March 16, 2010
62 people are currently reading
1116 people want to read
About the author
Michael Hirsh
17 books10 followersMichael Hirsh is the author of numerous books. During a 40-year career in broadcasting, he produced documentaries and specials for PBS, CBS, ABC and HBO, receiving multiple awards, including the Peabody.
He lives and writes in Punta Gorda, Florida
He lives and writes in Punta Gorda, Florida
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
January 19, 2012
A startling, sobering book. Shocking that it happened seventy years ago; shocking that so many--American as well as German, Arab and Iranian--now deny it happened. George Santayana's famous dictum comes to mind: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
It can happen again as it has happened repeatedly throughout history. As our knowledge and technology grows, so our ability to exercise inhumanity on our fellow man grows. And no one is safe from it. I recently read a devotional declaring on God's behalf, "then I surround you with a protective screen that keeps all evil from you." Tell that to the thousand--no, the millions of Christian, Jews, Moslems, and atheists murdered by Hitler's death camps. Tell that to the men and women who liberated those camps and asked "Why?" Tell it to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. No, it can happen and it can happen to any of us.
Worse, it may happen that we--by our action or inaction--can allow it. As Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
This is not an easy book to read. It is a history book; a record; a testimony by 150 men and women of the atrocities they personally witnessed. Enough detail is provided to document the truth of their statements.
This book was recommended to me by one of the 150: Forrest Robinson, one of the liberators. See his story at: http://umportal.org/article.asp?id=108
Not an easy read, but a necessary one.
It can happen again as it has happened repeatedly throughout history. As our knowledge and technology grows, so our ability to exercise inhumanity on our fellow man grows. And no one is safe from it. I recently read a devotional declaring on God's behalf, "then I surround you with a protective screen that keeps all evil from you." Tell that to the thousand--no, the millions of Christian, Jews, Moslems, and atheists murdered by Hitler's death camps. Tell that to the men and women who liberated those camps and asked "Why?" Tell it to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. No, it can happen and it can happen to any of us.
Worse, it may happen that we--by our action or inaction--can allow it. As Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
This is not an easy book to read. It is a history book; a record; a testimony by 150 men and women of the atrocities they personally witnessed. Enough detail is provided to document the truth of their statements.
This book was recommended to me by one of the 150: Forrest Robinson, one of the liberators. See his story at: http://umportal.org/article.asp?id=108
Not an easy read, but a necessary one.
September 1, 2013
This is an important book – it records the experiences of the World War II veterans who took part in the liberation of the concentration camps. The veterans are now obviously a dwindling resource and it’s very worthy of the author to get their testimonies into print. Often many of them only spent a few fours at the camps; but these few hours were forever etched unto their memories.
Interestingly some never spoke of their experiences until meeting with the author, Michael Hirsh. My father was a POW during World War II and he rarely spoke of his experiences. He would mention the positive aspects, like the days of liberation and his trip home. As one veteran mentions, often only the affirmative experience is spoken of; the negative memories are retained somewhere in the subconscious (a type of post-traumatic stress).
The stories of these veterans vary, but unfortunately it sometimes becomes repetitive which the author acknowledges. It is admirable that many officers organized proper burial services for the unknown dead victims. Some had the bodies buried at a memorial or a cemetery in the town center, in order that the populace could acknowledge, and not avoid, what had happened. Sadly these sites were removed by East German authorities. We can also thank Commander Eisenhower for filming the concentration camps. He felt that future generations would not believe this happened; and to some extent, unfortunately, this has also occurred.
From reading, it also becomes apparent that the concentration camps were widespread across Germany. Every part of the country had a camp – small or large. All of them had abominable conditions. The large ones were so vast and sprawling that different army groups would participate in their liberation.
We are indebted to Michael Hirsh for providing us with significant eyewitness documentation.
Interestingly some never spoke of their experiences until meeting with the author, Michael Hirsh. My father was a POW during World War II and he rarely spoke of his experiences. He would mention the positive aspects, like the days of liberation and his trip home. As one veteran mentions, often only the affirmative experience is spoken of; the negative memories are retained somewhere in the subconscious (a type of post-traumatic stress).
The stories of these veterans vary, but unfortunately it sometimes becomes repetitive which the author acknowledges. It is admirable that many officers organized proper burial services for the unknown dead victims. Some had the bodies buried at a memorial or a cemetery in the town center, in order that the populace could acknowledge, and not avoid, what had happened. Sadly these sites were removed by East German authorities. We can also thank Commander Eisenhower for filming the concentration camps. He felt that future generations would not believe this happened; and to some extent, unfortunately, this has also occurred.
From reading, it also becomes apparent that the concentration camps were widespread across Germany. Every part of the country had a camp – small or large. All of them had abominable conditions. The large ones were so vast and sprawling that different army groups would participate in their liberation.
We are indebted to Michael Hirsh for providing us with significant eyewitness documentation.
March 28, 2011
While it is interesting to hear about the liberation of Holocaust survivors from the point-of-view of American soldiers, the stories, being limited in scope, wind up being fairly repetitive.
December 2, 2010
I try to read a book about World War II every few years simply to remind myself of what humans can do to each other and how we must put forth a great effort to keep things like the Holocaust from occurring again and again.
I remember playing with the military uniforms, deactivated rifles and disarmed grenades that belonged to the neighborhood fathers back in the 1950s. We played war in emulation of the stories we overheard being told by these fathers. We also had access to small, black-and-white photos of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in which we saw the dead stacked like cordwood. We were immersed in the war experience on a daily basis which gave me a desperate sense of curiosity as to why the war had happened and what it must have been like tobe faced with violence, starvation, torture, death, etc. I spent my high school years reading everything I could about the Holocaust and the war (I still have my copies of William Shirer's books), trying to answer the big question: WHY? I never found an adequate explanation.
This book records the experiences of the rapidly dwindling GIs who were there. I've read many accounts before but this is the first time I've read about the totally understandable violent reaction many soldiers had after they discovered these camps. Also, this book describes the varied religious reactions the GIs experienced. Those who thought there could not be a god that would allow that much pain, suffering and pointless death became atheists. Others thought they were chosen by god to survive so that they could keep the war and the Holocaust from ever happening again. I can't quite understand the latter position. In addition, I was surprised to discover that some of the soldiers were still suffering PTSD reactions over sixty years after their terrible experiences.
This book has changed how I will behave toward veterans of all wars. They need to talk and I need to listen. The book made me sad. I don't think we humans have made much progress in our treatment of those who are different from ourselves. Scary but that is reality with which we have to deal. I'm glad I read this book and I hope it puts a dent in the armor of the crazy Holocaust deniers.
I remember playing with the military uniforms, deactivated rifles and disarmed grenades that belonged to the neighborhood fathers back in the 1950s. We played war in emulation of the stories we overheard being told by these fathers. We also had access to small, black-and-white photos of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in which we saw the dead stacked like cordwood. We were immersed in the war experience on a daily basis which gave me a desperate sense of curiosity as to why the war had happened and what it must have been like tobe faced with violence, starvation, torture, death, etc. I spent my high school years reading everything I could about the Holocaust and the war (I still have my copies of William Shirer's books), trying to answer the big question: WHY? I never found an adequate explanation.
This book records the experiences of the rapidly dwindling GIs who were there. I've read many accounts before but this is the first time I've read about the totally understandable violent reaction many soldiers had after they discovered these camps. Also, this book describes the varied religious reactions the GIs experienced. Those who thought there could not be a god that would allow that much pain, suffering and pointless death became atheists. Others thought they were chosen by god to survive so that they could keep the war and the Holocaust from ever happening again. I can't quite understand the latter position. In addition, I was surprised to discover that some of the soldiers were still suffering PTSD reactions over sixty years after their terrible experiences.
This book has changed how I will behave toward veterans of all wars. They need to talk and I need to listen. The book made me sad. I don't think we humans have made much progress in our treatment of those who are different from ourselves. Scary but that is reality with which we have to deal. I'm glad I read this book and I hope it puts a dent in the armor of the crazy Holocaust deniers.
February 16, 2015
Michael Hirsh spoke with over 150 Americans who were among the first to encounter Nazi concentration camps, sometimes mere hours after German troops had deserted them. They shared with him not only their experiences as young men and women witnessing hitherto unimaginable cruelty, but how those sights - and smells - affected them throughout their lives.
Many, but not all, of them did not speak about their experiences for decades after the war. Some just wanted to put it in the past. Others found that nobody wanted to hear about it. So why now? Many say they began speaking publicly about what they saw in response to Holocaust deniers and with the realization that soon there will be no witnesses left to speak out. These who saw atrocities against their fellow man that still give them nightmares speak out to anyone who will listen in the hope that learning about the past will spark a desire to prevent it from recurring.
That is the reason to read books like this. It is difficult to read about such monstrous hatred. It is honestly not something I like to think about, such pervasive evil, so much passivity to evil. I am a lover of happily ever afters, gardens in bloom, and laughing babies....but I know that ignorance does not create bliss. We need to know and remember and make sure future generations do, too.
Many, but not all, of them did not speak about their experiences for decades after the war. Some just wanted to put it in the past. Others found that nobody wanted to hear about it. So why now? Many say they began speaking publicly about what they saw in response to Holocaust deniers and with the realization that soon there will be no witnesses left to speak out. These who saw atrocities against their fellow man that still give them nightmares speak out to anyone who will listen in the hope that learning about the past will spark a desire to prevent it from recurring.
That is the reason to read books like this. It is difficult to read about such monstrous hatred. It is honestly not something I like to think about, such pervasive evil, so much passivity to evil. I am a lover of happily ever afters, gardens in bloom, and laughing babies....but I know that ignorance does not create bliss. We need to know and remember and make sure future generations do, too.
March 30, 2010
Very powerful. I'm convinced that one should read a book about the Holocaust every few years. Especially now that the original witnesses are passing away. "Lest we forget, lest we forget."
March 31, 2023
RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “THERE ARE NO WORDS KNOWN TO MANKIND THAT CAN ADEQUATELY DESCRIBE THIS!”
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I am a first generation post-Holocaust Jewish American whose Grandparents fled anti-Semitism in Europe. I was raised with first hand stories of the Holocaust… met Holocaust survivors… and was taught *NEVER-AGAIN*. I have faced anti-Semitism myself everywhere from the United States military to everyday life. I promised myself upon the birth of my son that I would educate him in every way possible about the history of his family and religion. I have read innumerable books on the Holocaust… but this one… this one is from such a different perspective… the perspective being that of the United States Military Men (and women) who were at the Nazi death camps when they were liberated. To try to explain to a potential reader how this book could possibly be different than the horrific… gruesome… first hand telling of the nightmare of the death camps by actual prisoners… is daunting.
The first hand experiences these 150 soldiers share painfully with the author creates what is quite possibly an insurmountable challenge for them… and I apologize in advance… since it is most likely beyond my capabilities also… because neither the spoken nor written word was meant to ever have to describe what they saw in those concentration camps. What adds to the horror that became part of these “LIBERATOR’S” lives… for the rest of their lives… over sixty years now… whether attempting to sleep despite unrelenting nightmares… or getting through another day… was that they all were totally unprepared for what they saw and experienced. None of them knew of the room full of hooks in which the Jews and others were hung on like meat at a butcher shop while awaiting the ovens. None knew of the showers that only spewed gas. As bad as all that was it was the so-called survivors who had been tortured… starved… turned into medical experiments… and were racked with disease… that became part of the liberator’s very soul for all eternity. One American serviceman said: “MOST OF THEM WERE JEWS THAT HITLER HAD PUT AWAY FOR SAFE KEEPING. SOME OF THEM HAD BEEN IN CAMPS FOR AS LONG AS 8 YEARS. SO HELP ME. I CANNOT SEE HOW THEY STOOD IT. NO LONGER WERE MOST OF THEM PEOPLE. THEY WERE NOTHING BUT THINGS THAT WERE ONCE HUMAN BEINGS.” “THE PEOPLE FOR THE MOST PART WERE DIRTY WALKING SKELETONS. SOME WERE TOO WEAK TO WALK”. One liberator said: “IF I TOUCH HIM, HE’LL FALL APART.” When the Nazi’s knew that the allies were within a day away they started killing as many prisoners as possible and tried to hide the bodies before they left. There was the famous “DEATH-TRAIN” that was found left behind as the Nazi’s fled that consisted of “THIRTY-NINE RAILCARS OF DEAD BODIES PARKED ON A SIDING MOSTLY OUTSIDE THE BOUNDARIES OF THE CAMP.” They had locked the living with the dead inside rail cars with the doors locked and nailed shut. As despicable as the Nazi’s themselves were… there were all the German citizens in the surrounding towns who said they knew nothing of the death camps, yet the liberator’s could smell the worst stench they had ever smelled in their lives when they were still ten to fifteen miles away from the death camps. In addition when the Nazi’s forced the death marches from one camp to the next to allude the approaching allied armies… the towns people came out and threw rocks and spit on the prisoners. In one town… Gardelegen… the townspeople assisted the Nazi’s in forcing ONE-THOUSAND-SIXTEEN concentration camp prisoners in a barn after pouring gasoline all over straw and then locked the prisoners inside and burned them alive. When the liberators found out… they made all the townspeople at gunpoint take each and every body out… dig an individual grave… and bury them.
When the Americans liberated the Ohrdruf concentration camp General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, “FLEW TO OHRDRUF BECAUSE OF THE UNBELIEVABLE STORIES HE’D HEARD. HE WAS MET THERE BY GENERAL OMAR BRADLEY, THE TWELFTH ARMY GROUP COMMANDER, AND GEORGE S. PATTON, COMMANDING GENERAL OF THE THIRD ARMY.” Most of the early liberator’s had enough after half-an-hour at this hell on earth… but.. “AFTER NEARLY TWO HOURS IN THE CAMP, EISENHOWER’ S STAFF TRIED TO GET THE GENERAL TO LEAVE”… they said: “IKE, WE’VE GOT A WAR TO FIGHT”, AND EISENHOWER RESPONDED,… “DON’T BOTHER ME, I’VE GOT TO GET THIS.” Eisenhower was reluctant to leave. “IT WAS ALMOST PROPHETIC THAT HE KNEW THIS WOULD BE DENIED.”… “BEFORE LEAVING OHRDRUF, EISENHOWER ISSUED AN UNCHARACTERISTICALLY EMOTIONAL ORDER. HE SAID, *** “I WANT EVERY AMERICAN UNIT NOT ACTUALLY IN THE FRONT LINES TO SEE THIS PLACE. WE ARE TOLD THAT THE AMERICAN SOLDIER DOES NOT KNOW WHAT HE IS FIGHTING FOR. NOW, AT LEAST HE WILL KNOW WHAT HE IS FIGHTING AGAINST.” ***
“After the visit, Eisenhower sent a cable to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, General George C. Marshall. It said in part:”
“THE THINGS I SAW BEGGAR DESCRIPTION. WHILE I WAS TOURING THE CAMP I ENCOUNTERED THREE MEN WHO HAD BEEN INMATES AND BY ONE RUSE OR ANOTHER HAD MADE THEIR ESCAPE. I INTERVIEWED THEM THROUGH AN INTERPRETER. THE VISUAL EVIDENCE AND THE VERBAL TESTIMONY OF STARVATION, CRUELTY, AND BESTIALITY WERE SO OVERPOWERING AS TO LEAVE ME A BIT SICK. IN ONE ROOM, WHERE THEY PILED UP TWENTY OR THIRTY NAKED MEN, KILLED BY STARVATION, GEORGE PATTON WOULD NOT EVEN ENTER. HE SAID THAT HE WOULD GET SICK IF HE DID SO. (PATTON WENT BEHIND THE SHED AND VOMITED.) 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.”
One not so high ranking soldier, Leonard “Pinky” Popuch (who after the war became Leonard S. Parker)… in a letter home… perhaps spoke for all liberator’s when he tried to explain to his family what he experienced at Dachau:
“I’M PROUD TO BE ONE OF THE MANY WHO FINALLY HELPED FREE THOSE POOR SOULS WHO HAVE BEEN THROUGH A HELL THAT THE DECENT MIND CANNOT IMAGINE POSSIBLE HERE ON G-D’S OWN EARTH…”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am a first generation post-Holocaust Jewish American whose Grandparents fled anti-Semitism in Europe. I was raised with first hand stories of the Holocaust… met Holocaust survivors… and was taught *NEVER-AGAIN*. I have faced anti-Semitism myself everywhere from the United States military to everyday life. I promised myself upon the birth of my son that I would educate him in every way possible about the history of his family and religion. I have read innumerable books on the Holocaust… but this one… this one is from such a different perspective… the perspective being that of the United States Military Men (and women) who were at the Nazi death camps when they were liberated. To try to explain to a potential reader how this book could possibly be different than the horrific… gruesome… first hand telling of the nightmare of the death camps by actual prisoners… is daunting.
The first hand experiences these 150 soldiers share painfully with the author creates what is quite possibly an insurmountable challenge for them… and I apologize in advance… since it is most likely beyond my capabilities also… because neither the spoken nor written word was meant to ever have to describe what they saw in those concentration camps. What adds to the horror that became part of these “LIBERATOR’S” lives… for the rest of their lives… over sixty years now… whether attempting to sleep despite unrelenting nightmares… or getting through another day… was that they all were totally unprepared for what they saw and experienced. None of them knew of the room full of hooks in which the Jews and others were hung on like meat at a butcher shop while awaiting the ovens. None knew of the showers that only spewed gas. As bad as all that was it was the so-called survivors who had been tortured… starved… turned into medical experiments… and were racked with disease… that became part of the liberator’s very soul for all eternity. One American serviceman said: “MOST OF THEM WERE JEWS THAT HITLER HAD PUT AWAY FOR SAFE KEEPING. SOME OF THEM HAD BEEN IN CAMPS FOR AS LONG AS 8 YEARS. SO HELP ME. I CANNOT SEE HOW THEY STOOD IT. NO LONGER WERE MOST OF THEM PEOPLE. THEY WERE NOTHING BUT THINGS THAT WERE ONCE HUMAN BEINGS.” “THE PEOPLE FOR THE MOST PART WERE DIRTY WALKING SKELETONS. SOME WERE TOO WEAK TO WALK”. One liberator said: “IF I TOUCH HIM, HE’LL FALL APART.” When the Nazi’s knew that the allies were within a day away they started killing as many prisoners as possible and tried to hide the bodies before they left. There was the famous “DEATH-TRAIN” that was found left behind as the Nazi’s fled that consisted of “THIRTY-NINE RAILCARS OF DEAD BODIES PARKED ON A SIDING MOSTLY OUTSIDE THE BOUNDARIES OF THE CAMP.” They had locked the living with the dead inside rail cars with the doors locked and nailed shut. As despicable as the Nazi’s themselves were… there were all the German citizens in the surrounding towns who said they knew nothing of the death camps, yet the liberator’s could smell the worst stench they had ever smelled in their lives when they were still ten to fifteen miles away from the death camps. In addition when the Nazi’s forced the death marches from one camp to the next to allude the approaching allied armies… the towns people came out and threw rocks and spit on the prisoners. In one town… Gardelegen… the townspeople assisted the Nazi’s in forcing ONE-THOUSAND-SIXTEEN concentration camp prisoners in a barn after pouring gasoline all over straw and then locked the prisoners inside and burned them alive. When the liberators found out… they made all the townspeople at gunpoint take each and every body out… dig an individual grave… and bury them.
When the Americans liberated the Ohrdruf concentration camp General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, “FLEW TO OHRDRUF BECAUSE OF THE UNBELIEVABLE STORIES HE’D HEARD. HE WAS MET THERE BY GENERAL OMAR BRADLEY, THE TWELFTH ARMY GROUP COMMANDER, AND GEORGE S. PATTON, COMMANDING GENERAL OF THE THIRD ARMY.” Most of the early liberator’s had enough after half-an-hour at this hell on earth… but.. “AFTER NEARLY TWO HOURS IN THE CAMP, EISENHOWER’ S STAFF TRIED TO GET THE GENERAL TO LEAVE”… they said: “IKE, WE’VE GOT A WAR TO FIGHT”, AND EISENHOWER RESPONDED,… “DON’T BOTHER ME, I’VE GOT TO GET THIS.” Eisenhower was reluctant to leave. “IT WAS ALMOST PROPHETIC THAT HE KNEW THIS WOULD BE DENIED.”… “BEFORE LEAVING OHRDRUF, EISENHOWER ISSUED AN UNCHARACTERISTICALLY EMOTIONAL ORDER. HE SAID, *** “I WANT EVERY AMERICAN UNIT NOT ACTUALLY IN THE FRONT LINES TO SEE THIS PLACE. WE ARE TOLD THAT THE AMERICAN SOLDIER DOES NOT KNOW WHAT HE IS FIGHTING FOR. NOW, AT LEAST HE WILL KNOW WHAT HE IS FIGHTING AGAINST.” ***
“After the visit, Eisenhower sent a cable to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, General George C. Marshall. It said in part:”
“THE THINGS I SAW BEGGAR DESCRIPTION. WHILE I WAS TOURING THE CAMP I ENCOUNTERED THREE MEN WHO HAD BEEN INMATES AND BY ONE RUSE OR ANOTHER HAD MADE THEIR ESCAPE. I INTERVIEWED THEM THROUGH AN INTERPRETER. THE VISUAL EVIDENCE AND THE VERBAL TESTIMONY OF STARVATION, CRUELTY, AND BESTIALITY WERE SO OVERPOWERING AS TO LEAVE ME A BIT SICK. IN ONE ROOM, WHERE THEY PILED UP TWENTY OR THIRTY NAKED MEN, KILLED BY STARVATION, GEORGE PATTON WOULD NOT EVEN ENTER. HE SAID THAT HE WOULD GET SICK IF HE DID SO. (PATTON WENT BEHIND THE SHED AND VOMITED.) 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.”
One not so high ranking soldier, Leonard “Pinky” Popuch (who after the war became Leonard S. Parker)… in a letter home… perhaps spoke for all liberator’s when he tried to explain to his family what he experienced at Dachau:
“I’M PROUD TO BE ONE OF THE MANY WHO FINALLY HELPED FREE THOSE POOR SOULS WHO HAVE BEEN THROUGH A HELL THAT THE DECENT MIND CANNOT IMAGINE POSSIBLE HERE ON G-D’S OWN EARTH…”
May 5, 2011
Well, i guess as far as WW2 books I've read go, this might be considered one of the happier ones. Maybe, kinda. It's all interviews with soldiers who were at the liberation (or soon after) of the concentration camps. To put it simply i think it's what you'd expect. Lately I've been looking for some stuff on the "payback" from the prisoners to the guards and got a few good stories on that subject. Also after reading book after book about how little support a lot of the prisoners got even after liberation it's good to read about people who supported them and who felt the rage that must've been felt seeing humans treat others this way. And the actions that the liberating soldiers also took on the Nazi gaurds. As I say in most of my reviews, a great and emotional read!
October 5, 2010
I've been doing a lot of "light" reading of late, and this work is certainly the antithesis of light. Mr. Hirsh has interviewed hundreds of American GIs and nurses who happened to be among the units who discovered the Nazi concentration camps throughout Eastern Europe.
These first-hand accounts are graphic and chilling. "Liberators" is a misnomer, according to these aging veterans (most of whom are uncomfortable with that appelation), since the German soldiers had fled by the time the Yanks arrived and the prisoners were already free. This should be required reading for those (idiots) who doubt the Holocaust.
These first-hand accounts are graphic and chilling. "Liberators" is a misnomer, according to these aging veterans (most of whom are uncomfortable with that appelation), since the German soldiers had fled by the time the Yanks arrived and the prisoners were already free. This should be required reading for those (idiots) who doubt the Holocaust.
January 9, 2011
I have read a lot of Holocaust books and while this one wasn't my favorite it gave me a new perspective. I have always focused on those who were imprisoned in those awful places but the Liberators allowed to me view the death camps through the eyes of the men and women who were at ground zero helping those prisoners to survive their liberation. I never thought of the shock it was to the liberating armies to learn and see the result of so much hatred being allowed to run free. I highly recommend this book.
July 20, 2010
This book is a must read for everyone. Michael Hirsh has interviewed survivors and pored over countless documents in order to tell the story of the men who freed the camps, and in some cases, where prisoners there themselves. Hirsh's warning to not let their language and descriptions become jaded or simplistic but to try and imagine what they meant to the soldiers who were there is a warning that we should all heed.
A book I plan to buy and reread.
A book I plan to buy and reread.
October 2, 2010
I only say, that next time you read about man's cruelty to man and our complacency to human events you consider these stories.
The following quote sums up this book better than I,
Delbert Cooper wrote to his wife after liberating Gunskirchen concentration camp:
"... There are two things about this I want to tell you:
1. I never again want to see anything like that happen to anyone.
2. I wish the 130 million American people could have been standing in my shoes."
The following quote sums up this book better than I,
Delbert Cooper wrote to his wife after liberating Gunskirchen concentration camp:
"... There are two things about this I want to tell you:
1. I never again want to see anything like that happen to anyone.
2. I wish the 130 million American people could have been standing in my shoes."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2010
This was a good read. Easy enough to not have to struggle through it (though my progress slowed as the accounts were similar), and REAL. It makes me want to find a WWII vet and talk to him or her. It also makes me think about what's going on in our world today that we might look back in shock that we let it go on. I'd recommend this book especially if you have never read anything like it.
November 8, 2010
A most sobering (if not particularly well-written) collection of liberation stories from the American soldiers who were there to free the concentration camp victims. I was especially moved by the chapter on how these men dealt with the experience and their memories after they came back to the States. Truly, they were a great generation.
February 7, 2011
I've waiting to read this even before it was ever written. Meaning that i always wondered what all the liberators felt when they came upon the concentration camps. I was immensely happy to see that my wishes had finally become a reality and in no better way. This book is extremely insightfull
January 6, 2012
a book that must be read, so the holocaust is not forgotten. a haunting book, but full of hope for the future. a new angle to the holocaust: that of the soldiers who were there when the camps were shut down.
February 8, 2011
Though I am very interested in this topic, unfortunately the recollections started to get a bit repetitive.
Want to read
August 7, 2012I need to read this book still, but am looking forward to it due to my job being the transcribing of the interviews used to write this book.
September 23, 2010
AUSTRIA
September 20, 2010
Not an easy read, but informative. Makes PTSD very real.
April 28, 2011
Really illuminating. The focus on the last few days of the war and the Nazi obsession with exterminating the Jews and their other prisoners made these men's stories powerful.
August 22, 2011
Such a terrible time in history but if you enjoy books about The Holocaust I recommend this highly.
March 23, 2023
In general, I found the writing to be straightforward, approachable, and engaging. It didn't take much for me to "get into" the book.
Hirsh interviewed about 150 American service men and women (including a handful of concentration camp survivors) about their experiences liberating Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe. The book is arranged in roughly chronological order of the liberation of the camps, with one exception: In the early part of the book, Hirsh takes a brief aside to report the experiences of a soldier from the Polish army (serving with Russian troops), who now lives in the US, about his experiences finding and liberating Auschwitz and finding Sobibor. And the last chapter focuses on the experiences of some of the soldiers after the war: how some soldiers found ways to cope, or not, with what they had seen.
There were a lot of similarities between the soldiers' experiences: the sights, the smells, their revulsion, etc. But Hirsh was able to find the uniquenesses in soldiers' stories, including some Jewish soldiers and a small number of German soldiers who served in the European theater.
I marked this review as having spoilers because I wanted to share two striking discoveries I made; one that made me very angry and one that made me proud. First the angry . . . The Russian army liberated Auschwitz and found Sobibor in very early 1945 and communicated the deplorable conditions they found to the Allied forces relatively soon after the discoveries. Yet, the American armed forces did not share what they had learned with the troops. At all. Young soldiers stumbled upon camp after camp and (sadly) gave their rations to the survivors not knowing that the food would likely kill anyone who ate it. Eventually the Allied brass did warn soldiers not to feed survivors so those deaths were mitigated as armies found more and more camps. It's no wonder that so many of the service men who found the concentration camps continue to be haunted by what they experienced and I am angry that the Allied brass didn't do more to prepare them for what they might find.
Now the proud. After the liberation of Buchenwald, the three highest ranking US generals visited the camp: Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton. After touring the camp, Eisenhower issued orders that all US Army personnel within a reasonable distance be diverted to see and tour the camp. Eisenhower publicly stated that some would deny the existence and horror of the camps and wanted as many men to bear witness to deny the deniers. By the way, Eisenhower's orders stood until the end of the war: as new camps were found and liberated, soldiers were diverted to see the camp to witness the atrocities.
Hirsh interviewed about 150 American service men and women (including a handful of concentration camp survivors) about their experiences liberating Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe. The book is arranged in roughly chronological order of the liberation of the camps, with one exception: In the early part of the book, Hirsh takes a brief aside to report the experiences of a soldier from the Polish army (serving with Russian troops), who now lives in the US, about his experiences finding and liberating Auschwitz and finding Sobibor. And the last chapter focuses on the experiences of some of the soldiers after the war: how some soldiers found ways to cope, or not, with what they had seen.
There were a lot of similarities between the soldiers' experiences: the sights, the smells, their revulsion, etc. But Hirsh was able to find the uniquenesses in soldiers' stories, including some Jewish soldiers and a small number of German soldiers who served in the European theater.
I marked this review as having spoilers because I wanted to share two striking discoveries I made; one that made me very angry and one that made me proud. First the angry . . . The Russian army liberated Auschwitz and found Sobibor in very early 1945 and communicated the deplorable conditions they found to the Allied forces relatively soon after the discoveries. Yet, the American armed forces did not share what they had learned with the troops. At all. Young soldiers stumbled upon camp after camp and (sadly) gave their rations to the survivors not knowing that the food would likely kill anyone who ate it. Eventually the Allied brass did warn soldiers not to feed survivors so those deaths were mitigated as armies found more and more camps. It's no wonder that so many of the service men who found the concentration camps continue to be haunted by what they experienced and I am angry that the Allied brass didn't do more to prepare them for what they might find.
Now the proud. After the liberation of Buchenwald, the three highest ranking US generals visited the camp: Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton. After touring the camp, Eisenhower issued orders that all US Army personnel within a reasonable distance be diverted to see and tour the camp. Eisenhower publicly stated that some would deny the existence and horror of the camps and wanted as many men to bear witness to deny the deniers. By the way, Eisenhower's orders stood until the end of the war: as new camps were found and liberated, soldiers were diverted to see the camp to witness the atrocities.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 13, 2025
Interesting how every single story mentions the smell and the dead bodies. Interesting because those who want to deny the concentration camps can’t get past the overwhelming evidence. They just aren’t looking. In all my reading of holocaust writings I have never found anything like this to say, it was fascinating would be to Infer that I enjoyed reading it, but I didn’t enjoy reading it because it once again sheds a light on a despicable reality. Though there have been massacre since then this one illustrates in no uncertain terms that destruction that can be done with the help of industry wide participation. I shutter to think of what could happen now was so much more efficiency. I’m always surprised at these tellings of the camps that the soldiers could stay there as long as they did let alone the survivors. Somebody in the book came across Eli with Cell as a child. He passed away three or four years ago? It wasn’t so long ago anyway. Thank you Michael Hirsch for writing this book in all of its deplorableness. And yet again, the goodness of people was revealed, and that perhaps is the best part of the book. The writing was excellent, of course though the story was not so much. The compassion of people and soldiers Made this book bearable and lens to it the classic struggle between good and evil.
May 7, 2017
I highly recommend reading this book in sunlight. Not before bedtime.
It opens with American POW as slave-labor in a mining shaft, some die, but bodies have to be recorded properly so they get stacked up (right near the POW eating room) until the recording clerk comes around once a week.
This sets the tone for the book. Many personal memories of American soldiers, chaplains, nurses. There is a lot of horror at what they see, a lot of 'why didn't high command warn us that things would be this bad'.
It is bad. But there are many stories of hope, as well.
Really an amazing set of stories.
It opens with American POW as slave-labor in a mining shaft, some die, but bodies have to be recorded properly so they get stacked up (right near the POW eating room) until the recording clerk comes around once a week.
This sets the tone for the book. Many personal memories of American soldiers, chaplains, nurses. There is a lot of horror at what they see, a lot of 'why didn't high command warn us that things would be this bad'.
It is bad. But there are many stories of hope, as well.
Really an amazing set of stories.
February 10, 2020
This was a compelling story but I had to put down the book several times. I don't know if the Russians felt liberating camps in the other side, but you can be there through the eyes of the liberators. You can feel their helplessness as they tried to feed the victims, only to have them scream in agony and literally die after being given food. The stench of the camps. It also talks about Berga. American soldiers were there as prisoners, (those that were Jewish, looked Jewish or even with names that were considered Jewish) forced to dig tunnels into the Rocky hillsides for secret labs and manufacturing.
March 5, 2018
Never again for humanities sake, and a special thanks to all the servicemen and women who contributed from their vivid recollections of what the Holocaust victims were put through by the evil empire. Thing to remember many were only 19, 2o or 21 years of age. A book like this will keep the naysayers at bay plus restore what the Nazi's took away from Jews, Poles, Russians etc but did not destroy the ethnic pride.
February 5, 2019
Unbelievable, the book is both uplifting for the prisoners who were saved and the stories that were told and at the same time terrible depressing due to the story of the concentration camps and all the deaths.
The ongoing question is how did it happen and how did those living there often not even acknowledge it or that they knew was going on.
A blemish on all mankind but at the same time a story of hope for those that did survive.
The ongoing question is how did it happen and how did those living there often not even acknowledge it or that they knew was going on.
A blemish on all mankind but at the same time a story of hope for those that did survive.
May 4, 2023
Fantastic, read all of it in less than a week. Read all of it keenly aware that most of not all of the interviewees are now gone, and their experiences forgotten except for those shared with the living. There is one sequence that, even after thinking I knew a lot about what happened, is likely going to give me new nightmares and made me wince.
December 18, 2018
Innocent of dirty German secrets
Hard to imagine that the soldiers didn't know anything about the camps the Nazis created to destroy Jews and other people who didn't fit the aryan perfect race according to Hitler.
Hard to imagine that the soldiers didn't know anything about the camps the Nazis created to destroy Jews and other people who didn't fit the aryan perfect race according to Hitler.
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