The Awful History

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It was almost as if General Dwight D. Eisenhower saw it coming. On April 12, 1945, the Commanding General of the European Operations toured the Ohrdruf camp, part of Buchenwald, after its liberation. He said, “I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’” And now we have people saying that very thing…the Holocaust was “propaganda.” The awful history of people who later moved to the Dallas area is on display at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, which is located near the Sixth Floor. Thanks to people who lived in the area who told their stories (including soldiers who were part of the liberating army) and donated artifacts, you can see what happened. While the museum isn’t a comprehensive collection, it really isn’t meant to be. This is the story of people who live (or lived) in the general area after the war. You won’t see Simon Wiesenthal here. What you will see is a collection of neighbors, re-living (often with tears as they tell of the last time they saw a parent or a sibling) their imprisonment for the crime of being a Jew. The museum has a number of displays, detailing the background of Germany after the First World War, showing the political rise to power of Hitler, and listing the various people who were considered “enemies of the state.” While the Jews were the largest population of the concentration and death camps, Nazis were also opposed to Romanis (colloquially known as “gypsies”), homosexuals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses (because they wouldn’t pledge allegiance to the state or the furher or anyone except God). It’s positively creepy to walk through a boxcar. Look around and think of how small it is, and that there were 100-150 people crammed into them, and it’ll send shivers down your spine. It’s an awful place…because it tells an awful history. But it’s one that must be told. The photo is some of the few surviving prisoner uniforms. Most of the uniforms were burned upon liberation because of the disease and infestation of bugs.