LIBERATION: Eighty years ago, on April 11,1945, U.S. forces liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in

Germany.

From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: ‘In early April 1945, as U.S. forces approached, the Germans began to evacuate some 28,000 prisoners from the Buchenwald main camp and an additional several thousand prisoners from the subcamps of Buchenwald. About a third of these prisoners died from exhaustion en route or shortly after arrival, or were shot by the SS. The underground resistance organization in Buchenwald, whose members held key administrative posts in the camp, saved many lives. They obstructed Nazi orders and delayed the evacuation.

‘On April 11,1945, in expectation of liberation, prisoners took control of the camp. Later that afternoon, U.S. forces entered Buchenwald.

Soldiers from the 6th Armored Division, part of the Third Army, found more than 21,000 people in the camp.’

The time of liberation, 3:15 p.m., is now permanently marked on the clock at the entrance gate.

From the National World War II Museum: Gen. Dwight D.

Eisenhower was part of an inspection of Buchenwald April 12.

After the inspection, he declared it must always be remembered.

He said, ‘We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for.

Now, at least, he will know what he is fighting against.’

Writer and professor Elie Wiesel and his father were among those liberated from Buchenwald. In 1986 he won the Nobel Peace Prize, which noted his devotion as an ‘eyewitness and messenger,’ who made it his life’s work to bear witness to the genocide committed by the Nazis in World War II.