On April 11, 1945, the Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated by American forces.
Pictured here are survivors from Buchenwald at the Haifa Port on the way to the Atlit Detention Camp (July, 1945). The little boy holding the flag is Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, emeritus Chief Rabbi of Israel! At 8 years old, Lau was one of the youngest survivors of Buchenwald. His brother Naphtali (on the left) looked after him throughout the war and together they made it to Israel.
Soldiers from the sixth armored division of the United States armed forces liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Nazi SS personnel had escaped from the camp earlier that morning. American soldiers under the command of General George Patton discovered to their horror 21,000 emaciated prisoners, 4000 of them Jews, including some of the most famous Holocaust survivors, whose testimony and untiring efforts have ensured the horrors of Nazi atrocities be indelibly engraved on humanity’s consciousness. Among them were Elli Wiesel, and emeritus chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau. An estimated 70000 individuals were murdered in Buchenwald. Radio broadcaster Edward Murrow visited the camp a few days after its liberation, and described the appalling vision that met his eyes in one of the first eye-witness accounts of the Holocaust to reach Western ears. He signed off his broadcast as follows:
“I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it I have no words…. If I’ve offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I’m not in the least sorry.”
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