When the liberating armies finally entered the camps, they were met with scenes of unspeakable horror.

by Rabbi Eliyahu Ellis and Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

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Liberated Prisoners

Liberated Prisoners (Including Elie Wiesel)
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

When the first GI's started returning home from the war, one of the things that drove them crazy was that no one would believe what they had to say! No one would believe the stories of what they saw.

 

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At Dachau

Pile Of Bodies At Dachau
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

 

Scenes of horror and carnage – mountains of bodies awaiting cremation – met the eye at every turn.  Pyres of wood and bodies remained unlit as the fleeing Nazis abandoned their attempts to cover up the atrocities they had committed.

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Liberated Jews

Liberated Jews At Buchenwald
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

And thousands of camp inmates, in a state of living death from starvation and disease, needed immediate care.  Alas, that care was too late in coming for too many.  Interred in the same camps they had suffered in, sometimes seemingly the only difference being the language of their jailors, they awaited their fate in the new world order.

 

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At Bergen-Belsen

Sign Written By British Soldiers After Liberation
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

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Mass Burial

Jewish Survivors Burying Their Comrades
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

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Child Survivors

Children After Liberation
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

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Published: Wednesday, December 31, 1969
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Visitor Comments: 17

(17) Siobhan, January 14, 2010 3:12 AM

If i am honest I was until recently mostly ignorant in knowledge of what happened to all these people in the holocaust, all the suffering, I cannnot put into to words as to shocked, saddened and disguted I am! you just have to look at the photos to realise they were so brave and corageous they way the faced what thse people where doing to them.

(16) Jack Glasser, August 13, 2009 12:58 PM

All of this now is to make the world remember

The world must never forget how so few Germans led so many millions of Jews into the gas chambers without knowledge that their death was impending. The world must never forget how the German Government pursued a policy of extermination of millioms of Jews and built facilities for the mass extermination and disposal of their bodies, the world must know the trickery and the cruelty that the German people practiced on the Jews. Time tends to erase things that are unpleasant for people to hear and even read but we Jews must make sure that the world never forgets what happened in the Death Camps at the KZ and why the KZ was created in the first place so that this will never happen again and by the creation of the State of Israel, the Jews will never let this happen again to our own people.

(15) taylor, May 1, 2009 7:07 AM

sad but true

I cant imagine this every happening to me and my family so whoever this happened too my heart goes out too you.im soooooo sorry.

(14) Anonymous, March 31, 2009 10:01 AM

I'm sorry!

Who could of thought that man could do this to man. Who could of stood by while millions of people died. I am not a survivor but i am a decendant. The pain and suffering of the generations before me is unbareable. I hope that this will never happen again. I hope that the suvivors can live their lives happily and worry free. I give my sympathy to any one who will take it. May the ones who didn't survive res tin peace.

(13) Anonymous, March 2, 2009 4:33 PM

im a student in reedley high school and ive never knew how horrifing the holocaust was until i began researching it. The book "night" tought me a lot and i just wanted to say that all those people responsible for this will sooner or later pay if they havent payed already. The holocaust will always be remembered and this shows how cruel and racist the world can really be.....

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About the Author

Rabbi Eliyahu Ellis

Rabbi Eliyahu Ellis studied biology and geology at Northern Illinois University. In addition, he spent time as a deep-sea diver in the oil fields in the North Sea between Scotland and Norway and has circumnavigated the seas of the world in a sailboat. Rabbi Ellis received rabbinic ordination from Aish HaTorah where he is a senior lecturer at the Discovery and Essentials programs.

Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky received his BS from Cornell with a major in Communication Arts and a minor in Archeology, and did post-graduate work at UCLA in the field of Desert Plants and Natural History. Prior to moving to Israel, he worked in the field of Urban Ecology including several years as a landscape designer in Beverly Hills. Rabbi Silinsky received rabbinic ordination from Aish HaTorah and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. He currently teaches at the Yeshivat Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem.

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