J. Thurmond: “In a little less than 1 month, the world will commemorate the 50th anniversary of 'D-day,' the invasion of Europe that…”

“In a little less than 1 month, the world will commemorate the 50th anniversary of 'D-day,' the invasion of Europe that signaled the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. As a veteran of the invasion, I remember how excited we were with our progress as we quickly pushed the enemy back into Germany. As we got closer to Germany, though, our enthusiasm was severely and depressingly dampened as Allied units began to liberate concentration camps. I will never forget how shocked and sickened I was by what I found at Buchenwald. It was a place filled with people who were starved, diseased, and barely alive. How anyone could survive such an environment was amazing, and how anyone could create such a Hell was incomprehensive. For the loss of better words, I, and my fellow liberators, were aghast and infuriated at what we discovered at that camp and its gruesome horror was permanently burned into our memories. As time marches on, and the bizarre era of German history known as nazism grows distant, younger generations run the danger of forgetting, or worse yet, never knowing the atrocities of the madmen of the Third Reich.”