" At six o'clock that afternoon, the first American tank stood at the gates of Buchenwald." (pg. 115)
The American troops liberated the camps of Dachau and Buchenwald, and other members of the Allied forces freed the prisoners in other camps. The soldiers were overwhelmed with the evidence of what had happened in the camps. Even though the Germans tried to hide what happened in the camps, there were thousands of bodies, and the smell of death hung over the site. The Americans found little survivors but many belongings, including some tens of thousands of pairs of shoes. When the Allies arrived there was little they could do for the remaining prisoners. Almost 2,500 of the 33,000 prisoners left in Dachau died within the six weeks after the liberation. They suffered from bad treatment, malnourishment, and various diseases for too long to be saved by the Allies. The soldiers were completely horrified by what they found, however they were glad to do what they could, even though it was too late for so many. On Army journalist said “Dachau Gives Answer To Why We Fought.” After the war ended, Ally forces put the Jewish survivors in a Displaced Persons program, and tried to help them find a new place to start over.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005131
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I agree with what you said. The soldiers should of been overwhelmed at the ways the Nazi's killed the jews and all the dead bodies there. It also had a very bad smell to it. The soldiers could not do much because so many have already died but others were just not health. The jews were treated wrong and had barely enough energy to live so they soldiers could not really do anything. The programs that the jews were put into was very helpful because they were very sick.
ReplyDeletethis is a very good post. the allied forces probably couldnt believe their eyes when they saw the horrific mistreatment of the jewish people. and of course they would find out, it was obvious. Although the nazi's had a very systematic plan to exterminate all of these jews, once they found out that the allied forces were coming they paniced which made it even more obvious. I think it was also good what they did atleast for the time being with the dosplaced persons program. there was just so much chaos that they really didnt know what to do with them, so they tried to help them overcome their sickness.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about that question too! I thought the troops just let the Jews reunite with their families and live their life like they used to. But so many people died after they got freed from harsh conditions and bad treatments. It was sad to see the survivors died when they just got freed too. I was wondering why the Allies did little they could do to help the survivors, was it because it was to late?
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