April 11 1945 – 28 Nisan 5705
Soldiers from the sixth armored division of the United States armed forces liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Nazi SS personnel had escaped from the camp earlier that morning. American soldiers under the command of General George Patton discovered to their horror 21,000 emaciated prisoners, 4000 of them Jews, including some of the most famous Holocaust survivors, whose testimony and untiring efforts have ensured the horrors of Nazi atrocities be indelibly engraved on humanity’s consciousness. Among them were Elli Wiesel, and emeritus chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau. An estimated seventy thousand individuals were murdered in Buchenwald. Radio broadcaster Edward Murrow visited the camp a few days after its liberation, and described the appalling vision that met his eyes in one of the first eye-witness accounts of the Holocaust to reach Western ears. He signed off his broadcast as follows:
I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it I have no words…. If I’ve offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I’m not in the least sorry.
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