In September first, 1939, the German Army invaded Poland marking the start of the Second World War: A six-year conflict between two sets of military alliances, the Allied forces and the Axis powers. During this period, the world witnessed an increasing hatred towards Europe’s minorities, including Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, and Slavs among others who did not fit into the Nazi superior “Aryan” race. Although the European Theater had been in war for almost two years, The United States did not officially become part of the conflict until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Three years later, the American Army discovered one of the Nazi extermination camps, and thus, almost accidentally, the liberation of these encampments
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This surprise occurred, not because the Allied leaders were unaware of the extermination practices inside the camps, but rather because the main objective was to defeat Germany and Japan. Moreover, the Allied leaders thought that to intervene in the Jewish genocide would only be a distraction from the mentioned goal of the war. In addition, American GIs along with the general public did not believe what the media said about the Jewish holocaust. In fact, surveys taken in 1994 proved that just four percent of Americans believed the atrocities taking place in the camps. It was not until the American soldiers stepped into Ohrdruf that the reality of the Nazi death machine sank in. Nothing could have prepared the soldiers for what they encountered. Moreover, to witness the horrors inflicted by the Nazis, shocked even the most experienced soldiers, and, as the liberation was continuous, every time more units arrived, “the sight and smell of a death camp exploded in [new] soldier’s faces”. Those experiences, even if short, marked them …show more content…
Called Stalag, German for branch camp, followed by a number, was the method used to designate prisoners to the appropriate camp. Each Stalag held different kinds of prisoners of war. For example, Stalag Luft III only imprisoned officers. Cecil Davis was an American soldier part of the 100th Bomb Group Unit. In the summer of 1944 he was captured, beaten, raped, and eventually taken to Stalag IV, which held more than 10,000 airmen from England and The United States. The prisoners were rarely fed; therefore, most of them became ill and weak. As the Allied forces advanced, the Germans took the Prisoners to various other camps. Eventually, Cecil was taken to Stalag VII-A; camp where wounded or dying English, Russian, and American soldiers were held. Cecil describes “one of the best days of his life”, April 28, 1945, when the 14th Armored Division reached the camp and liberated its inmates: everyone was “cheering and climbing over the tanks”. After that, the soldiers were taken to England and eventually to California, where he was forced to sign a document forbidding him to talk about what had happened at the camps. Today, the world knows that millions of POW died from starvations while held under German
This surprise occurred, not because the Allied leaders were unaware of the extermination practices inside the camps, but rather because the main objective was to defeat Germany and Japan. Moreover, the Allied leaders thought that to intervene in the Jewish genocide would only be a distraction from the mentioned goal of the war. In addition, American GIs along with the general public did not believe what the media said about the Jewish holocaust. In fact, surveys taken in 1994 proved that just four percent of Americans believed the atrocities taking place in the camps. It was not until the American soldiers stepped into Ohrdruf that the reality of the Nazi death machine sank in. Nothing could have prepared the soldiers for what they encountered. Moreover, to witness the horrors inflicted by the Nazis, shocked even the most experienced soldiers, and, as the liberation was continuous, every time more units arrived, “the sight and smell of a death camp exploded in [new] soldier’s faces”. Those experiences, even if short, marked them …show more content…
Called Stalag, German for branch camp, followed by a number, was the method used to designate prisoners to the appropriate camp. Each Stalag held different kinds of prisoners of war. For example, Stalag Luft III only imprisoned officers. Cecil Davis was an American soldier part of the 100th Bomb Group Unit. In the summer of 1944 he was captured, beaten, raped, and eventually taken to Stalag IV, which held more than 10,000 airmen from England and The United States. The prisoners were rarely fed; therefore, most of them became ill and weak. As the Allied forces advanced, the Germans took the Prisoners to various other camps. Eventually, Cecil was taken to Stalag VII-A; camp where wounded or dying English, Russian, and American soldiers were held. Cecil describes “one of the best days of his life”, April 28, 1945, when the 14th Armored Division reached the camp and liberated its inmates: everyone was “cheering and climbing over the tanks”. After that, the soldiers were taken to England and eventually to California, where he was forced to sign a document forbidding him to talk about what had happened at the camps. Today, the world knows that millions of POW died from starvations while held under German