19. A 70-Year Memory: Liberation

While the 10th Armored was regrouping in the west, the Red Army was moving westward. What they discovered in Poland has defined the depths of what humans can do to each other. Later in the spring the 10th Armored would be involved in liberating one of the camps. But this day is to be remembered as well. It is still, 70 years later, the symbol of incredibly inhuman actions. Around 1.1 million people died there. It's name should still bring chills to anyone with a conscience.

Auschwitz.

From Wikipedia:

As Soviet troops approached Auschwitz in January 1945, most of its population was evacuated and sent on a death march. The prisoners remaining at the camp were liberated on January 27, 1945, a day now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the following decades, survivors such as Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, and Elie Wiesel wrote memoirs of their experiences in Auschwitz, and the camp became a dominant symbol of the Holocaust.

Never again!

Commemorative flowers on the rail track in Auschwitz II-Birkenau

"KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bahngleise der Entladerampe, Blumen zum Gedenken" by Dnalor 01 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.