Liberation
The concentration camps were liberated in a period between 1944 and 1945. The Soviets were the first to discover and liberate one of the camps on July 1944. Dachau was one of the later camps to be liberated on April 22 1945 by the Americans. Colonel William W. Quinn who was part of the forces who liberated Dachau said: “There our troops found sights, sounds, and stenches horrible beyond belief, cruelties so enormous as to be incomprehensible to the normal mind.”
Although the camps had been liberated an astonishing amount of the inmates had already been removed and only a few thousand were found alive. At Aushwitz a well know concentration camp because of its massive size there was only 7,000 inmates remaining out of the 1.1 million that were estimated to have been killed there.
Even after camps like Dachau were liberated they still served a purpose. At first it was used by the U.S army used it as an internment camp. Then as the site for the Dachau trials for criminals of war because of its importance as the start of concentration camps and a school of death. Lastly a memorial site was built on the grounds in 1965.
Although this is a sad and undoubtedly depressing subject it is now an essential part of our history as humans. It shows what can happen when a nation listens to and allows for one man to have all the power. When this and even similar situations happen, it really shows the importance of the democratic system and freedom of information. Even although there was the systemic extermination of millions of people occurring, the people living in Germany were unaware of it, but even if they had their thoughts were controlled through the constant use of propaganda.
Although we cannot change our past we can always work on improving our future through the study of it.
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