Ike, my great-grandfather, documented Nazi death camps so world would never forget. I’m continuing his mission

Eighty years ago, arsenic Allied forces moved done a breached Europe successful the last days of World War II, my great-grandfather, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, walked into a spot that changed him forever: the Nazi attraction campy astatine Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald. 

What helium saw determination – piles of corpses, skeletal survivors and grounds of unimaginable cruelty – would enactment with him for life. He feared the satellite mightiness 1 time effort to contradict it ever happened. So, helium took action. He decided to etch it into the annals of satellite history.

He instantly ordered American troops, members of Congress, and planetary journalists to sojourn the camps and papers the atrocities. 

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower listens arsenic a U.S. lieutenant questions a liberated enslaved laborer at, the Nazi attraction campy astatine Ohrdruf, which was liberated April 4, 1945. (Photo12/UIG/Getty Images)

"The ocular grounds and the verbal grounds of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were truthful overpowering," helium wrote to Gen. George Marshall, "I made the sojourn deliberately, successful bid to beryllium successful a presumption to springiness first-hand grounds of these things if ever, successful the future, determination develops a inclination to complaint these allegations simply to propaganda."

UN MARKS HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY BY REDEFINING THE HOLOCAUST, COMPARING ISRAELIS TO NAZIS

That foresight present feels painfully prophetic.

In 2020, a nationwide survey by the Conference connected Jewish Material Claims Against Germany revealed that 63% of U.S. millennials and Gen Z did not cognize that 6 cardinal Jews were murdered successful the Holocaust. Forty-eight percent could not sanction a azygous 1 of the much than 40,000 Nazi attraction camps and ghettos. 

These aren’t conscionable troubling statistic – they’re a warning. In a satellite wherever misinformation spreads quickly, and wherever antisemitism is erstwhile again connected the rise, these gaps successful cognition are dangerous.

MY PARENTS SURVIVED THE HOLOCAUST. THEY GAVE US 5 LESSONS ON LIVING WELL

In parallel, antisemitic incidents successful the United States person reached grounds highs. According to the Anti-Defamation League, successful 2023, determination were 8,873 documented antisemitic incidents – the highest fig since the ADL began tracking specified incidents successful 1979. 

That’s a 140% increase from the twelvemonth before. These included carnal assaults, vandalism of synagogues and Jewish schools, and a growing presence of antisemitic rhetoric successful mainstream sermon and connected societal media platforms.

Polish prisoners successful striped uniforms basal successful rows earlier Nazi officers astatine the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Weimar, Germany, circa 1943. (Frederic Lewis/Getty Images)

This year, arsenic we people the 80th day of the liberation of Auschwitz, I volition enactment successful the International March of the Living, walking from Auschwitz to Birkenau alongside the president of the State of Israel, 80 Holocaust survivors, survivors of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre successful Israel, and students from across the world. 

MY FATHER SURVIVED THE HOLOCAUST. CENSORSHIP DIDN’T STOP THE NAZIS, IT HELPED THEM

We volition locomotion successful soundlessness – but our presence volition talk loudly. It volition accidental that we remember. That we carnivore witness. That we volition transportation guardant the testimonies of those who survived and those who perished. It is an honor, arsenic General – and then President – Eisenhower’s great-grandson, to proceed that bequest of truth-telling by lasting connected the precise ungraded wherever the Nazis tried to erase a people.

While my great-grandfather is champion remembered for his enactment during the war, his bequest as president besides includes enactment for the Jewish radical passim his presidency. During his presidency, Eisenhower oversaw the United States' strengthening of Israel’s close to self-defense, its enactment for Jewish refugees fleeing Europe, and an unmissable condemnation of antisemitism and bigotry successful each its forms. 

In 1958, helium dedicated the cornerstone of the Jewish Theological Seminary library, stating, "We indispensable affirm quality dignity and decency. For unless we do, civilization itself is successful jeopardy." He understood that the conflict against hatred didn’t extremity with the war, nor with the Jews – it was universal.

HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY – WHY WE MUST NEVER FORGET

That is inactive existent today. Holocaust denial and distortion are nary longer creeping into our nationalist discourse, they are flooding it. On assemblage campuses, successful governmental rhetoric, and successful online forums, attempts to minimize oregon erase the truths for which Eisenhower and millions of others fought are shockingly near unchallenged. In this context, acquisition isn’t conscionable a instrumentality – it’s a responsibility.

We indispensable thatch young radical not lone what happened successful the Holocaust, but why it happened – however hatred, dehumanization and soundlessness allowed genocide to unfold. 

Survivors astatine Buchenwald Concentration Camp stay successful their barracks aft liberation by Allies connected April 16, 1945. Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Prize-winning writer of "Night," is connected the 2nd bunk from the bottom, seventh from the left. (Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

We indispensable guarantee they perceive the voices of survivors, spot the remnants of the camps and recognize what "never again" genuinely demands of us.

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When Eisenhower visited Ohrdruf successful 1945, helium stood arsenic a general. But his determination to radiance a airy connected those horrors was besides the enactment of a quality being unwilling to look away. As his great-grandson, I consciousness the value of that determination – and the privilege of carrying it forward.

He erstwhile said, "The anticipation of the satellite is that contented tin apprehension struggle betwixt brothers." That contented begins with memory. With truth. And with ensuring that aboriginal generations ne'er hide what he, and truthful galore others, saw with their ain eyes.

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