May 8, 1945. On May 9th, my father’s outfit, known as Patton’s Ghost Troops liberated a death camp at Ebensee, Austria, referred to as the most diabolical of the camps.
My dad wouldn’t talk about it. His friend Bob Persinger commanded the first tank into the site. He told me a teenaged boy came up to his tank. He gave the boy a piece of bread. The young man took a bite and dropped dead from shock. He said they learned they could only give the 150 survivors (all teenagers) ice chips for hours before water and then food.
Read about the horrors here if you think you can take it:
https://www.jewishgen.org/forgottencamps/camps/EbenseeEng.html
Edward R. Murrow - Buchenwald
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTQkrLPJGM8
“If I have offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I am not in the least sorry.” - Edward R. Murrow.
What a sobering and humbling story. Thank you for sharing.