USA 250th: Eisenhower: Holocaust - Document Proof - Warning of future Deniers

Eisenhower didn’t just witness the end of World War II. He saw something he feared the world would try to erase. After Allied troops began liberating Nazi concentration camps, the phone calls came in with reports so horrific that rumors could no longer cover the truth. When prisoners were asked what their “crime” was, the answer landed like a verdict on humanity: “Because we are Jewish.”

We walk through why Dwight David Eisenhower, then the commanding general, made the choice to personally tour the camps in April 1945 and to bring other leaders along. The episode revisits the scenes that stopped even hardened generals in their tracks: disease, starvation, mounds of bodies, and survivors described as walking skeletons. But the focus isn’t gore for shock value, it’s the responsibility of leadership when confronting genocide, antisemitism, and state-sponsored brutality.

Then comes Eisenhower’s most urgent insight: denial would follow. He feared that “somewhere down the road” people would call the Holocaust a hoax, so he ordered documentation, film, and eyewitness testimony to lock the historical record in place. 

We connect that warning to modern Holocaust denial and distortion, including controversy around what gets taught and who influences education. If you care about World War II history, Holocaust education, and the fight against disinformation, this story is a bracing reminder that truth has to be defended on purpose.

Subscribe, share this with someone who values historical truth, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway from Eisenhower’s warning.

• Soldiers’ reports from liberated concentration camps across Europe
• Survivors’ answer to “What was your crime?” and what it reveals about antisemitism
• Eisenhower’s April 1945 camp tour with senior military leaders
• The decision to bring in journalists, soldiers, and officials as eyewitnesses
• The order to document evidence with film, records, and testimony
• Modern claims of Holocaust denial and the fight over historical truth
• A closing salute to Eisenhower’s leadership and moral clarity

Transcript

Eisenhower Hears The First Reports

SPEAKER_00 0:00

His name was Dwight David Eisenhower. You probably know him as the President of the United States for two terms, but near the end of the war, he began receiving these phone calls from all across Europe from his soldiers when they came to liberate some of these concentration camps. Eisenhower had heard rumors, but he never realized how bad it was. They had never realized how brutal the treatment of children, women, and men, and what they found of the prisoners. And they asked these prisoners, what was your crime? The answer was, because we are Jewish. Our crime is we are Jewish.

Touring The Camps And The Shock

SPEAKER_00 0:42

And the stories, the reports, and the soldiers across Europe were so bad, Eisenhower decided he, as commanding general, would personally attend and tour these camps. In April 1945, he brought many military with him, including General Marshall, leader of the Marshall Plan, and a very famous general named George S. Patton. But during the tour, the smell, the odor, the sickness, the atrocities, the stacking of bodies was so horrible that not even General Patton could complete the tour. Eisenhower was shocked at what he saw. He was shocked of what the Nazis, the National Socialist Party of Germany, what they could do to people.

Documenting Evidence To Stop Denial

SPEAKER_00 1:28

But Eisenhower had this real fear that people would deny this ever happened. So he brought in the newspapers. He brought in other military soldiers, he brought in elected officials who were in Europe to come and be eyewitnesses. They saw human beings who were alive, who looked like walking skeletons. They saw mounds of human bodies, disease, the sickness, the torture, the treatment of children, women, and men. And Eisenhower had this fear that if we do not document it now, if we don't take all the eyewitnesses right now, somewhere down the line of history, someone's gonna say it didn't happen, it was a hoax, it was propaganda. So in April of 1945, General Eisenhower ordered the documentation of all the atrocities of these camps. He said, quote, get it all on record, get the films, get the witnesses, because somewhere down the road of history, some and he uses word, some bastard will get up and say that this never happened. End of quote. He was that concerned.

Modern Holocaust Denial On Campus

SPEAKER_00 2:38

General Eisenhower was almost prophetic because uh right now I'm in the third decade of 21st century. And it has happened. You've seen it right now. You too are now an eyewitness. You've seen it across our colleges and universities. There are there are places where these professors are denying the Holocaust. And just as Eisenhower feared or saying it was a hoax, it was propaganda, it never happened, denying the murder of six million children, women and men. And I'm going to give you my personal opinion, and I'm allowed that. But I've researched that every year there are billions of dollars from countries outside the United States that come in and they help fund our colleges and university. Specifically, they're called endowed chairs. When you get a letter from your college, university, they'll brag about how many endowed chairs they have, which often are good. It could be research for cancer or some other disease. But some of these endowed chairs are coming from nations who hate the United States and hate Israel. And they're paying for the full salary of certain professors they have designated, who are teaching our children and our grandchildren to deny the Holocaust. I'm not making it up. You've seen it if you've watched TV, that the Holocaust never happened, it's exaggerated, it was not six million children, women, and men. I just thank God for General Dwight David Eisenhower. He had almost a prophecy. We better document it now. We better get the pictures, we better get it on film, we better get the recordings, we better get the eyewitnesses, because somewhere down the road of history, people are gonna deny this ever happened. General Eisenhower, I'm very sad to say, you were right. But I thank God that you had that vision, that leadership, that courage.

A Salute And Final Thanks

SPEAKER_00 4:31

This is Ken Mercer. Mercer Moments in American History. Today's entitled Eisenhower and the Holocaust. And actually it's a salute. It's a big thank you to General Dwight, David, Eisenhower.