Holocaust schooling important to stop future genocides, says Eisenhower's great-grandson

[ad_1] Eighty years after the Holocaust , far too many individuals are both downplaying its severity or denying it altogether, warned Merrill Eisenhower Atwater, great-grandson of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

His remarks got here as nations world wide on Thursday commemorated the eightieth anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.

On Might 8, 1945, Nazi Germany formally surrendered to the Allied powers, bringing an finish to the conflict in Europe—a battle that claimed the lives of roughly 40 million folks, together with the extermination of 6 million Jews.

Final month, Eisenhower Atwater took half within the March of the Residing on Holocaust Remembrance Day, strolling alongside survivors and hundreds of members from world wide. The march traces the trail from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the Nazi dying camps in occupied Poland, in a solemn tribute to the victims and in honor of the survivors and their liberators.

"While you’re sitting with 80 Holocaust survivors and each you and they're crying due to how particular the second is—they usually inform you, ‘With out your great-grandfather, this by no means would have occurred’—I say, with out your bravery, this by no means would have occurred," Eisenhower Atwater informed Fox Information Digital on Wednesday,

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<img src="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/04/1200/675/ff2e7507-gettyimages-104404170-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1" alt="The Ohrdruf concentration camp near Buchewald, Germany. Then-American Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander in chief of the European Allied forces, and his soldiers discovered 70 prisoners who had been shot down in the courtyard in Germany on April 4." width="1200" height="675"/> The Ohrdruf focus camp close to Buchewald, Germany. Then-American Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander in chief of the European Allied forces, and his troopers found 70 prisoners who had been shot down within the courtyard in Germany on April 4. (Photograph by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone by way of Getty Pictures)

"One individual equals a number of lives that had been saved. It wasn’t simply the liberation of the camps—it was saving generations," he added.

Among the many march’s members was Israel Meir Lau, former chief rabbi of Israel and a toddler survivor of Buchenwald, who personally met Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower , who led the Allied offensive in opposition to the Nazis in Europe, in the course of the camp’s liberation.

Additionally remembered was Chaim Herzog, father of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who was readily available for the march. A British military officer throughout World Battle II, Chaim Herzog performed a job in liberating the Bergen-Belsen focus camp. His father, Yitzhak Isaac Halevi Herzog—who would additionally turn into a chief rabbi of Israel—met with Gen. Eisenhower in 1946 as a part of a mission to assist Jewish survivors throughout postwar Europe.

Eisenhower Atwater referred to as his inclusion "humbling" and mentioned the march allowed him to "sit and discuss with unsung heroes."

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One survivor particularly, Eva Clarke, left a deep impression. "She’s one of many kindest souls I’ve ever met. Discovering out that the gasoline ran out only a couple days earlier than she was born—that’s divine intervention," he informed Fox Information Digital. "She led the way in which. Simply an unbelievable girl with an unbelievable story. She ought to encourage everybody."

Clarke was born on April 29, 1945 on the gates of Mauthausen focus camp, one in all solely three recognized infants to have survived beginning there.

Clarke’s mom, Anka Kauderova, endured three and a half years in focus camps: Theresienstadt in then-Czechoslovakia, Auschwitz, and the Freiberg slave labor camp and armament manufacturing facility in Germany. She was finally transported in open coal wagons, together with 2,000 different prisoners, on a grueling 17-day journey with out meals and with minimal water to Mauthausen.

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"My mother and father had been in Theresienstadt for 3 years, which was unusually lengthy. They had been younger, sturdy, and in a position to work. To some extent, it was a transit camp to a dying camp," Clarke informed Fox Information Digital.

"On the finish of September 1944, their luck ran out. My father was despatched to Auschwitz , and extremely, my mom volunteered to comply with him the subsequent day. She didn’t know the place he was going and, ever the optimist, believed it couldn’t worsen they usually’d survive," she mentioned.

Anka by no means noticed her husband once more. An eyewitness later informed her that he was shot and killed within the dying march close to Auschwitz on Jan. 18, 1945. Auschwitz was liberated by the Russian military on Jan. 27.

In 1943, Anka turned pregnant. "It was harmful, however she met my father secretly. Changing into pregnant in a focus camp was thought of a criminal offense punishable by dying," Clarke mentioned.

Eva Clarke as a child held by her mom in Mauthausen focus camp after liberation. (Courtesy: Eva Clarke)

Her brother was born in February 1944 however died of pneumonia two months later. "Had my mom arrived at Auschwitz with a child in her arms, each would have been despatched to the gasoline chamber. No one knew she was pregnant once more—with me."

In April 1945, Anka was despatched to Mauthausen. "It’s a stupendous village on the Danube in Austria, however the camp sits on a steep hill behind it. When my mom noticed the identify on the practice station, she was shocked—she had heard how horrific it was. That shock probably triggered her labor, and he or she started giving beginning to me," Clarke mentioned.

She credit her survival to timing. "On April 28, the Nazis ran out of gasoline. I used to be born on April 29. Hitler dedicated suicide on April 30. On Might 5, the American eleventh Armored Division liberated the camp."

When the Individuals arrived, they introduced meals and drugs—although many, weakened, died upon receiving them. Three weeks later, as soon as Anka regained energy, U.S. forces repatriated her to Prague. There, Anka met her second husband, and the 2 left to keep away from dwelling below communism, finally settling within the U.Ok.

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"I really feel Merrill is my new finest good friend," Clarke mentioned of Eisenhower Atwater. "It was overwhelming to satisfy somebody whose great-grandfather performed such an essential function in ending the conflict. I used to be delighted to reconnect with him once more in Auschwitz just a few weeks in the past. Everybody wished to thank him for what his great-grandfather did."

Clarke will return to Mauthausen this Sunday to mark the eightieth anniversary of its liberation by U.S. forces. "I’ll be there with two different infants who had been born below comparable circumstances. We're so grateful, I can’t even specific it," she informed Fox Information Digital.

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Reflecting on the ethical readability his great-grandfather exemplified, Eisenhower Atwater underscored that we're all human beings first.

"Everyone knows proper from flawed. It's flawed to kill folks, flawed to place infants in ovens, flawed to place folks in gasoline chambers. That’s clear," he mentioned.

He acknowledged that Holocaust denial usually stems from disbelief. "It’s simple to say one thing didn’t occur as a result of it’s arduous to grasp the dying of that many individuals. I get that. But it surely did occur. Nazi Germans killed 10,000 folks a day—it’s well-documented. They documented it themselves, and the Allied forces noticed it first-hand.

"No one actually desires to speak in regards to the dying of six million folks over a five-to-six-year interval," he added. "But it surely’s the reality."

Amelie Botbol is a contract journalist primarily based in Tel Aviv. Her articles have appeared within the New York Put up, Canada’s Nationwide Put up, and the Washington Instances. Amelie might be adopted on X @DatReporter