Holocaust observance stresses exemplary response of U.S. Army

By Ray KozakewiczMay 8, 2014

Holocaust historian
Dr. Charles D. Sydnor, CEO of the Virginia Holocaust Museum, Richmond, receives two plaques from Col. Robert C. Horneck, CASCOM chief of staff, and Chaplain (Maj.) Stanton Trotter, following his remarks at the Holocaust National Days of Remembrance O... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT LEE, Va. (May 8, 2014) -- A noted World War II historian, author and CEO of the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond praised the U.S. Army's response in liberating the concentration camps "as exemplary" during the Holocaust Days of Remembrance Observance at Memorial Chapel on May 1.

The program was hosted by CASCOM and the Fort Lee Equal Opportunity Office.

"The first American responses to the Holocaust," said Dr. Charles D. Sydnor, "were by the men and women who served in the U.S. Army." Sydnor said,"A reconnaissance company from the 3rd Army operating in Germany stumbled on a place called Ohrdruf on April 12, 1945." It was a sub-camp of the larger Buchenwald camp.

"Nothing had prepared the Soldiers for what they found there -- hundreds of emaciated and half-rotten, naked corpses infested with flies lying everywhere," he said. "The survivors were unable to walk and too weak to stand. Some were barely able to lift their heads and could only mumble."

The unit commander, said Sydnor, radioed his headquarters and asked for higher command authorities to come to the camp. This plea brought Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to the camp within hours.

"Eisenhower was so stunned, horrified, sickened and revolted by what he saw," noted the featured speaker, "that he ordered all high-level commanders of the 3rd Army to come to Ohrdruf as quickly as possible.

"Everybody who carried at least one star on their helmet within the range of Ohrdruf were taken through the camp by the healthier of the survivors," said Sydnor.The military leaders including then Lt. Generals George S. Patton and Omar Bradley learned about the shootings, beatings, hangings, starvations, diseases and other human brutality the victims suffered.

"Eisenhower felt surely there could be no place worse than this," Sydnor told the community members. "And, of course, he was wrong."

After leaving the camp, Eisenhower wrote a letter to Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Marshall ordering every Soldier who could be detached to come to the camp.

"He wanted the Soldiers to see what they were fighting for and against," Sydnor explained. "So, at no time in the future would anyone ever be able to say 'these things did not happen.'"

Within weeks, other concentration camps in the region were liberated by the U.S. Army. "These brutal camps and their names all have become permanent stains on the history of inhumanity," said Sydnor.

The Army's medical personnel were mobilized and rushed to all the camps to help save the survivors.

"The murderous intent of the Nazis was to exterminate every living man, woman and child of the Jewish culture and faith anywhere in Europe," he noted.

"The Holocaust must be remembered because it is unique -- it is the greatest deliberate process of human destruction in the lifetime of man," asserted Sydnor.

"Generations of leading scientists, doctors, philosophers, professors and millions more disappeared from the face of earth. They were murdered due to the circumstances of their birth," he said.

"At the nadir of their inhumanity and the lowest depths of their barbarism, the Nazis were the murderers of children." He estimated that 1.5 million children under the age of 12 were killed by the Nazis.

On the contrary, he noted how American Soldiers were loved and respected by children. "Our Soldiers would help rather than murder -- give rather than pillage. Children hid in fear of Germans and smiled when they saw our Soldiers -- asking for gum and candy," said Sydnor.

Following Sydnor's remarks, Col. Robert C. Horneck, CASCOM chief of staff, said, "It is very important that as Soldiers, we share and learn from history in order that we never allow it to happen again."

During the event, Soldiers from CASCOM and Sydnor participated in a candle-lighting ceremony as members of the 392nd Army Band performed the somber "Theme From Schindler's List."

Staff Sgt. Thomas Jackson of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, CASCOM, said this year marks key anniversaries of two dramatic events in Holocaust history -- the 1939 denial of access to immigrants fleeing Nazi persecution and the 1944 reaction, or lack thereof, to the mass killing of Jews in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

"Both incidents are worthy of reflection," Jackson said. "They should raise the following questions: What can be learned from America's response? What are the warning signs that would help the nation recognize and prevent future genocides?"