And we continue to let it live, even when those who experienced it are still among us and able to recount its horror.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 10/28/2010 3:42:51 PM PDT by SJackson
Washington (CNN) -- The tattered journal, its pages yellow with age, contains the painful memories of a U.S. medic, a man who recorded the deaths of soldiers who survived one of World War II's bloodiest battles yet met their end as slaves in Nazi Germany.
"Some were dying," said its author, Tony Acevedo, now 86. "Some died, and I made a notation of that."
Flipping through the pages, you encounter a horrific part of world history through the eyes of a 20-year-old inside a slave labor camp. Amid the horror, the journal captures extraordinary human moments of war. Acevedo sketched beautiful women in the back pages, pinups whose eyes provided comfort amid hell.
Acevedo kept the diary hidden in his pants. He feared death if the commanders saw it. Yet he believed it was his duty as an Army medic to catalog the deaths and the atrocities against the 350 U.S. soldiers at the camp known as Berga, a subcamp of the notorious Buchenwald compound.
With his hair silver-streaked and a smile that exudes charm, Acevedo recently made the journey from his California home to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in the nation's capital. He carried his Red Cross medic's band, a cross that provided comfort in war and his diary. He also brought a prayer book that he read to the sick and dying.
"I speak for all my buddies who were there," Acevedo told museum staff members in a private ceremony. "I turn this over to the Holocaust museum with honor and pleasure, with all my heart."
He spoke softly, gently. Like the book itself, his hands showed the mark of time. His face beamed with pride, his chin held high. On his lapel, he wore a pin with a star and beneath it the words: "U.S. Army."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
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For decades denied by our government. American POWs used as slave labor alongside workers from SS camps in the east.
For those interested, other links here and Berga: Soldiers of Another War . A second book the title of which escapes me.
I have a friend who fought in WWII as a platoon leader in Italy. He told me once that he frowned on shooting German prisoners, and whenever he caught his men doing it, he gave them a good chewing out.
Such an important story. Thanks for posting.
I’m sorry I read the comments, though. How people can be so hateful about the victims of something as horrific as the Holocaust just amazes me.
Kleenex Alert - there are no words after watching this video. This is a must video to remind each of us what we owe these American patriots. We face the same evil today.
Kleenex Alert - there are no words after watching this video. This is a must video to remind each of us what we owe these American patriots. We face the same evil today.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/28/acevedo.holocaust.soldier/?hpt=Sbin
An indication of CNN's readership. A story about American POWs killed in the camp system, and people rant about Jews.
So much was covered up during WWII that is only starting to come out in the last few years.
History as always told us that for the most part Nazis treated US & Brit POWs fairly well. Guess there is more to the story.
btt
And we continue to let it live, even when those who experienced it are still among us and able to recount its horror.
***ahemcoughcough*** Nazis didn't treat anybody well. They started the war, they murdered and plundered tortured everyone they met, and they enjoyed doing it because it was in their nazi DNA. Schadenfreud and all that, only militarized.
The ordinary German soldier who wasn't necessarily a nazi? He wanted to go home alive just like everyone else, the thing that made him different is that he was from a culture where one was expected to follow ALL orders... and he knew that being sent to the eastern front was a death sentence.
If he was really ahead of his peers, he knew that the most fortunate thing that could happen to him was to be captured by the Americans.
Thank you for posting this story.
There are many more stories like this, yet to be revealed..When the US Army liberated Buchenwald, more than a few SS guards tried to disguise themselves as inmates. They were dealt with harshly..
It is very important for those who know what is right, to post to these outlets in rebuttal to all the garbage the leftists spew. I have begun my own personal campaign to support our military and the pre-born on any site with a large liberal following. They need to hear the truth whether they will accept it or not. I tried at DU on an abortion article, but was immediately banned. Must have been the sarcasm. Oh well. :)
he believed it was his duty as an Army medic to catalog the deaths and the atrocities against the 350 U.S. soldiers at the camp known as Berga, a subcamp of the notorious Buchenwald compoundThanks SJackson.
Bless this man.
I’ve been to the Holocaust museum but somehow the cattle car is not part of my memory of it. I do remember having a hard time, crying a lot.
I am glad that it is personally difficult for me to truly imagine that real humans can do this to others. I am so sorry for what these soldiers went through, and I pray our government will not be so heartless to those like them in the future. G-d knows of their service and what they went through, and I am glad this one could tell his story.
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