On the recordJanuary 27, 2020
Today, January 27, marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. As the world pauses to remember the greatest tragedy in human history, we must recommit ourselves to opposing the murderous and racist ideology of anti-Semitism which led to the genocide and death of over six million Jews and 11 million political prisoners at the hands of the Nazi regime. We must also remember our continuing responsibility to educate the world about the horrible truth of the Nazi atrocities and ensure the lives of those who were brutally murdered are never forgotten. My fellow Kansan, General Dwight Eisenhower, who, at the time was the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, understood this responsibility. Upon receiving news of the concentration camps, he quickly visited for himself, stating: ``The things I saw beggar description. While I was touring the camp, I encountered three men who had been inmates and by one ruse or another had made their escape. I interviewed them through an interpreter. The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty, and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. In one room, where they were piled up 20 or 30 naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said he would get sick if he did so.…
