Snip from Edward R. Murrow's Investigation of Buchenwald German Prison!

[KoKo]

(Will it come to this when the whole story of the "Detainee Prisons of Iraq, comes out?)

Edward R. Murrow's
Report From Buchenwald

Legendary CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow described the scene at Buchenwald when he entered the camp after liberation:

There surged around me an evil-smelling stink, men and boys reached out to touch me. They were in rags and the remnants of uniforms. Death already had marked many of them, but they were smiling with their eyes. I looked out over the mass of men to the green fields beyond, where well-fed Germans were ploughing....

asked to see one of the barracks. It happened to be occupied by Czechoslovaks. When I entered, men crowded around, tried to lift me to their shoulders. They were too weak. Many of them could not get out of bed. I was told that this building had once stabled 80 horses. There were 1200 men in it, five to a bunk. The stink was beyond all description.

They called the doctor. We inspected his records. There were only names in the little black book — nothing more — nothing about who had been where, what he had done or hoped. Behind the names of those who had died, there was a cross. I counted them. They totaled 242 — 242 out of 1200, in one month. As we walked out into the courtyard, a man fell dead. Two others, they must have been over 60, were crawling toward the latrine. I saw it, but will not describe it.

(SNIP)
We proceeded to the small courtyard. The wall adjoined what had been a stable or garage. We entered. It was floored with concrete. There were two rows of bodies stacked up like cordwood. They were thin and very white. Some of the bodies were terribly bruised; though there seemed to be little flesh to bruise. Some had been shot through the head, but they bled but little.
(SNIP)

I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it, I have no words. If I have offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I'm not in the least sorry....

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/murrow.html









Gallery of photos from Dachau lest we forget...
http://history1900s.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fmotlc.wiesenthal.com%2Falbums%2Fpalbum%2Fp00%2Fa0048p2.html

[goclark]

1. Ed, where are you now

that we need you!
There must be a strong voice that will cry out to the whole world that this is Wrong for the World!

[mike_c]

2. maybe not as bad as that....

But what entry into the camps at the end of WW2 taught us was that America had fought for an honorable cause. It also taught us what the face of evil really looks like, so that we could remember it when we see it again.

[Kanary]

3. Where, oh where are the Edward R. Murrows now????

Thanks for the reminder that the US *used* to have good reporters, with integrity.

Oh yeah... that's when the investigation was about *other* people.

Now look at who it is........

~~holding up mirror~~

I guess it'll be up to the reporters from other countries to tell the truth.

Kanary, sick unto death......

[bobbieinok]

4. Buchenwald right near Weimar - symbol of best of German culture: Goethe,

http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Camps/BuchenwaldEng.html

Some info about the site and the camp.

[havocmom]

5. My daughter interviewed a Buchenwald survivor for a project in high school

And he was invited to speak to the whole school as a result. It was really something.

We need to make sure the kids get humanities and civics in schools. Maybe not as glamorous as football and multi-media, but we need to make sure they get educated.

Too many people find it too easy to deny that horrors have happened. It scares me that we set the stage for it to happen again and again through assuring ignorance/hate/denial all from lack of education and understanding.

Never forget. Never accept it again, from any people, done to any people.

[KoKo]

6. The photos tell the story. We can't allow something like this to happen

again. "Detainees" nothing but a number in a black book with no rights to see their families and no right to a trial or a hearing for their detention.

The brutilization has already started. We have to hope it doesn't end up like these photos. We cannot start a new century with this kind of inhumanity being repeated. We just can't. :-(

[banana republican]

7. read

If I have offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I'm not in the least sorry.

[bleedingheart]

8. When I heard about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners I thought about

the Nazi war crimes and felt absolutely ashamed that Americans have taken part in such monstrous acts.