Read The Liberators: America's Witnesses to the Holocaust Online

Authors: Michael Hirsh

Tags: #History, #Modern, #20th Century, #Holocaust, #Psychology, #Psychopathology, #Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The Liberators: America's Witnesses to the Holocaust (55 page)

Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

BANTAM BOOKS and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Hirsh, Michael.
The liberators : America’s witnesses to the Holocaust / Michael Hirsh.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-553-90731-5
1. World War, 1939–1945—Concentration camps—Liberation. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Concentration camps—Germany. 3. World War, 1939–1945—Concentration camps—Austria. 4. Concentration camps—Germany—History—20th century. 5. Concentration camps—Austria—History—20th century. 6. World War, 1939–1945—Atrocities. 7. Soldiers—United States—Interviews. 8. World War, 1939–1945—Personal narratives, American. 9. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Personal narratives. I. Title.
D805.G3H523 2010
940.53′185—dc22 2009042954

www.bantamdell.com

Frontispiece drawing by 84th Infantry Division combat artist Walter H. Chapman. It depicts the burning of barracks at the Salzwedel concentration camp, as described in
Chapter 7
.

v3.0

Table of Contents

Introduction: How Do You Prepare to See That?

The Beginning of the End

Life and Death in Berga

Incomprehensible

Springtime for Hitler

Little Boys Became Men

Mere Death Was Not Bad Enough for the Nazis

Ike Knew This Would Be Denied

Buchenwald: This Ain’t No Place I Wanna Be

Gardelegen: Even the Good Germans Had Blood on Their Hands