Apr 11: Patton’s THIRD ARMY liberates Buchenwald concentration camp, Weimer, Germany.
April 12: United States Military Chaplain, “20–something” Rabbi Herschel Schechter rolls into Buchenwald with tanks of Ace Corps headquarters, 3rd Army… He announces with bullhorn to the survivors “YOU ARE FREE”… Emaciated and starving survivors try to kiss his boots… Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, arrive to view the debacle inside Buchenwald…
Apr 12–14: Famous American photographer Margaret Burke–White, accompanying the Third Army, photographs the unfolding death–camp liberation saga for the world finally to see; Patton orders the 1750 denizens of surrounding town of Weimer marched–through to witness the “handiwork” of their compatriots… Eisenhower orders the entire contiguous liberator US 4th Armored Division to march through Buchenwald: “Now you will all know clearly what this war has been about…”
Seventeen–year–old emaciated and starving imprisoned Elie Wiesel emerges from the NIGHT of Buchenwald only barely clinging to life… DOWN. But not quite OUT.