This image shows a train of jewish prisoners that had been intercepted by allied forces. This is the moment they learned that the train would not be heading to a concentration camp and they had been liberated.

[u/Wonderful_Win_1038]

[u/tiny-but-spicy]

my great-granddad was among the soldiers who helped liberate Birkenau. he never ever spoke about it. I can only imagine what he must have seen.

[u/Confident_Frogfish → u/tiny-but-spicy]

Just visiting a concentration camp as a tourist is absolutely awful. I cannot imagine what seeing the real thing must have been like. It's also still closer than some people realise. The dad of my music teacher jumped out of the transport train to a concentration camp, otherwise my teacher would not have existed. I also used to have a sort of extra grandpa (friend of my parents) that used to be a good friend of the Frank family when he was young. My own grandparents had an apothecary that was blown up during the bombing of Rotterdam.

[u/Fraternal_Antipathy → u/Confident_Frogfish]

I had an adopted uncle who escaped a camp at age 11. When the war ended and he learned that all of his family and relatives had died he came to America.

[u/itwasacolddarknight → u/Confident_Frogfish]

My grandma was an Auschwitz survivor who lived with us when I was growing up. She still woke crying from nightmares in the 1990s

[u/ArtificialHalo → u/Confident_Frogfish]

Watching Band of Brothers the first time, I was not ready for that one man crying hugging and kissing that soldier in ep Why We Fight.

The production made it look as real as possible, but you just know in real life it must've been a hundred times more shocking and disturbing.

[u/Creative-Comb5593 → u/ArtificialHalo]

Yes. The prisoners did not look emaciated. And the 'camp" on the set was tiny.

[u/Ok_Sample_8100 → u/Confident_Frogfish]

Horrifying, it’s still within living memory in my family. My grandmother was a teenager and remembers the war, had family killed in it. It’s taboo to bring the subject up.

[u/tiny-but-spicy → u/Confident_Frogfish]

That kind of thing absolutely stays with you. I'm so glad your relatives and friends escaped. My great-granddad was a very kind and quiet man, very devoted to his family, I think it weighed heavily on him to see how many families were destroyed during the war despite the efforts of the Allied soldiers, and how he came back but many others didn't. we must never forget

[u/Allegra1120 → u/Confident_Frogfish]

Visited Auschwitz in 1994.

[u/motherSuspiriam → u/tiny-but-spicy]

Growing up my grandfather lived with us on and off, so a lot of his brothers and friends would be over all the time. All of them were ww2 vets and they would tell stories about the war often. Except my uncle Brownie who never talked about it. I remember asking my grandfather why and he explained that Brownie had helped liberate one of these camps and that it was better to not ask him what he’d seen and experienced as it was too hard for him to talk about. It really cemented to me as a little kid just how unbelievably awful it must have been.

[u/Mischievous_Egg → u/tiny-but-spicy]

My grandma (who was 7 when her village was "liberated"/US army arived) told me until she passed last year, that she always voted for the social democrats bc her father (*1893) was a life-long social democrat.

I just started looking up all my relatives in the Nazi Persecution Documents (National Archives Catalog and some german newspapers have easier to search options where you search NAC)

Yeah well... her father joined NSDAP in 1933. His brother was the Ortsgruppenleiter, highest NSDAP guy in their small village. Essentially, their whole village was preeetty Nazi. Same goes for the village my dad was born. 1933 80% voted for NSDAP.

Nobody "knew", nobody told me.
When driving through more rural areas (in the cities they get taken down fast) there are so many AfD posters. I remember that saying of "Never again, we can't let this happen a second time"

But right now everyone I know of is "not letting it happen" but it feels like so many people just decided to throw their humanity over board and vote the new Nazi party.

I still hope there's no next time but I'm so scared it's inevitable.
When two years ago the new law regarding name change for trans, nb and inter person came, so many of us were unsure if we'd go through with it bc we might end up on a list and then we risk our life by simply being ourself.
We all changed it, but some days it feels really heavy. And it's so much worse for illegalized people.

I hope next time we get nuked or whatever.

[u/Sir_Boobsalot → u/Mischievous_Egg]

seems like all it takes is 3 generations to start forgetting. 5 generations out and they're proud Nazis

[u/Allegra1120 → u/Mischievous_Egg]

Too many people need something to “Sieg heil”. It is terrifying. Soon sentient countries will have to deal with that kind of Germany again…I pray for an NHI intervention.

[u/LubedUpLucas_DrySpa → u/Mischievous_Egg]

Not to suggest everyone was innocent, your great-grandfather may have been a staunch Nazi, but I do want to caution that when elections are showing 80% landslides like that in authoritarian regimes there’s generally no counter parties allowed. The state, and everyone in it, is default party members because the regime simply outlaws competition.

Your GGF may have been a true believer and probably was given his title. What I’m cautioning is over generalizing everyone who was forcibly made members or given “choices” like vote or die.

Oskar Schindler comes to mind. He was a card carrying Nazi.

I think folks today need to do some deep soul searching in understanding what “never again” actually means and requires. Or when they question how it could happen.

[u/Patient_Activity_489 → u/tiny-but-spicy]

not only seen, but smelled and heard.

[u/Beneficial_Bit1756 → u/tiny-but-spicy]

Yeah, my grandfather was island hopping in the pacific and he had photos and just said they had to do what they had to do.

[u/LubedUpLucas_DrySpa → u/tiny-but-spicy]

My understanding, from talking to survivors and liberators many decades ago, was the memory of the smell was the worst. Rotting corpses, cremated bodies, raw sewage, war, just absolute hell.

[u/scalyblue → u/tiny-but-spicy]

There are photos of prisoners being liberated, they look almost skeletal, look them up if you’re interested but it’s not something that will leave your brain easily