Tati Martinez

Mr. Hawkins
Modern World History - Period 4
8 March 2016
Liberation
As the era of the Holocaust came to a conclusion, much of the German nation felt a surge
of hope as the Americans came to discover the atrocities and suffering that a majority of
Germany was put under for several years. In the despair and desperation of the concentration
camps where roughly 11 million un-pure German citizens suffered, many were shocked and
unable to react fully when suddenly liberated by American troops and soldiers. In many stories,
the sorrowful German citizens were described as walking dead, stripped of their humanity, or
skeletons covered with skin. After the exploration of the camp site and barbaric discoveries to
be never forgotten, survivors and witnesses of these camps have lives to tell the appalling tales of
the harsh and inhumane treatment of the German military under the rule of the Nazi dictatorship.
From the perspective of both the witnesses and survivors, several accounts of said concentration
camps have been recorded to reveal the conditions of the camps, the liberation, and the future
filled with false hope.
For several years, millions of un-pure mixed race Germans suffered greatly in
concentration camps led by the Nazi government. As described by both witnesses and survivors
of the camps, survivors had expended all their efforts on the struggle to survive: they scavenged
for food, they tried to protect themselves, they lived from minute to minute. This struggle to
survive didnt leave room to focus on the world they had lost: their family and their friends, their

occupations and habits, their neighborhoods and possessions. Suddenly they were confronted
with a new reality. (Website 1). With these described circumstances, it was difficult to believe
there were any survivors at all within these camps of death and suffering. American and Soviet
troops were appalled upon the findings of the mass amount of filth, hunger, and death within the
camps as they came to an anticlimactic liberation. In many liberation tales, gruesome specifics
are described to exaggerate the intensity of the camps, in which one liberator claimed, I went to
a building where they stored body parts from medical experiments in jars of formaldehyde. I
saw eyes and the hearts and genitals. I saw mounds of little childrens clothing. Little children
who didnt survive. I saw all of those things that belong to little children. But I never saw a
child (Website 2). Many specificities much like this were common in stories of the
exploration and liberation of the camps in which the American and Soviet troops were newly
exposed to. Along with this, a commonality within several stories became evident, in which
many witnesses described the horrendous stench of the burning bodies. One soldier in his
acclimation on his findings stated, Heavy metal trays had been pulled out of [those] openings,
and on the trays were partially burned bodies. On one tray there was a skill partially burned
through, with a hole in the top; other trays held partially disintegrated arms and legs. It appeared
that those trays could hold three bodies at a time. And the odor, my God, the odor. (Website 3).
Much like the descriptions of the childrens clothing, these discoveries allowed troops to truly
understand the amount of suffering that was enforced within the camps, much of which soldiers
could not take. However, many of these atrocities were not to be uncovered if not for the
liberation of the camps itself; all of which were just as abhorrent.

The liberations, while anticipated as joyous moments of appreciation and gratitude, led to
merely anticlimactic and vile events. Prisoners of camps during the liberations were often
described similarly, in which [some] ran out to joyously meet their emancipators and to see if
their release was true. Others stayed within their living quarters, afraid to come out, like timid
animals insecure with their new freedom. (Website 2). This clearly showed both the physical
and mental trauma caused by the camps, in which many survivors were too shocked to respond
as the troops may have expected. In several stories, soldiers claim to have had nearly the same
reaction as the prisoners, as they entered camps with triumph and valiance, prepared to defend
off well trained, armed German troops. A tale told by an American soldier stated that, The
prisoners came up and surrounded us, mobbing with us as they jabbered, but they spoke a
language we did not understand- they were probably speaking several languages we did not
understand. There was the slightest of communication. They gave way and moved along with
us. (Website 3). This detail of the greeting of the American troops reveals the animal-like
disposition of the prisoners which they adapted from their time in the camps. The troops
cautiously provided a sense of safety and comfort to the survivors as the camps were slowly
emptied and the prisoners were treated. In similarity to this, another American survivors states in
his acclamation that [The prisoners] were staying at the camp even though their guards and staff
had fled because they didnt know where to go or what to do. They had heard the news that the
Americans had taken over that area and they were waiting for somebody to turn their back again
and they were just lost souls at that time. Well, my feeling was that this was the most shattering
experience of my life. (Website 2). Much like the previous acclamation, this showed the
extreme mental trauma set upon the prisoners, which became quickly evident to the liberation

troops. However, as the liberations continued and more survivors were freed from camps, many
were came to a realization that the free life was not to live up to its expectations.
As many German Jews were freed from the camps in the mid 1940s, many came to
discover that the life they had mourned and pleaded for for months was not all they had wished
for. As the survivors slowly began adjusting back to normal living circumstances, it became
evident that nothing was to truly return to how it was prior to Nazi dictatorship; For Jewish
survivors, however, liberation had come too late. Entire communities in Eastern Europe,
especially, had been wiped out and all their Jews exterminated. Over 90% of the Jewish
community in Poland, the largest in Europe, had perished. (Website 1). As stated, the largest
community in Europe had suffered and died in the camps spread throughout Poland. With this,
the few survivors were forced to face a new reality of gaping loneliness, with no one to share the
bliss of freedom; to be free people with far too much space. In similarity to this, one survivor
stated in their acclamation, We had lived all that time with a certain sense of a mission, but
now? It was over! What for? I had never cried; they had never seen me depressed, not once; I
had to live strongly, but on 17 Januaryits not easy to be the last of the Mohicans. (Website 1).
This common gaping reality that many of the survivors faced replaced the alleged time for
freedom and bliss for yet another time of mourning. Without the struggle to survive and make it
through one more day, many felt a sense of hopelessness and felt an underwhelming sense of
accomplishment for their efforts to keep living. As the liberations ended, American and Soviet
soldier witnesses felt an overbearing sense of pity and empathy towards the prisoners, in which
one veteran telling his perspective on the camp discovery stated, [A medic and I] said a prayer
together. Mine was partly in Hebrew and partly in English. I said the prayers for the dying and

the dead, the Shma Israel and the Kaddish. When we finished, we threw our arms around each
other and he said, Why do humans have to do this to other humans? Why cant they just be
human? (Website 2). This quote greatly captures the tone of the liberations in contrast to
expectations of bliss and joy. All nations from across the world were sent to a period of
mourning, in honor and respect of those who perished in the covert camps of suffering.
As the Holocaust came to a conclusion, American and Soviet troops began to uncover the
atrocities and realities of the concentration camps as liberations began; however, as prisoners
were set free after many moths of agony and suffering, their freedom was not all that was
expected. Upon discovery of the camps, troops were appalled by morbid scenes of burning
bodies and walking skeletons. With this, the liberations of the camps themselves served to be
somewhat underwhelming, as the joyous, blissful greetings were evidently turned into looks of
lost hope and deep trauma. In similarity to this, freed survivors were also recorded to serve from
major depression with a new reality of loneliness and lack of motivation to keep living.
However, these events lead to a time of deep appreciation and honor towards the survivors and
their tenacity in their endurance.