Hear from the witnesses themselves
In 1945, Allied forces broke the German lines of the Western Front, and the Third Reich began to crumble.
As waves of the Wehrmacht surrendered and retreated, the armies of the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union moved into their strongholds.
These included the concentration and death camps of the Holocaust. Often, it wasn’t until witnessing the horrors left behind by the Nazis within these confines that the Allied troops came to understand the full gravity of their mission.
In these short clips, four liberators share not only their experience storming the camps, but also an array of reflections, including on life after the war and messages to future generations.
To view their full testimonies, please visit the Visual History Archive Online, which is available for free to anybody with an internet connection. The VHA Online includes 4,000 full testimonies and metadata and a slideshow for all 56,669 survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and genocide.
Click here to register for the VHA Online.