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Consider This from NPR

Saving history one story at a time

Consider This from NPR

NPR

Society & Culture, News, Daily News, News Commentary

4.15.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This summer marks 80 years since the end of World War II when Allied forces liberated Nazi-occupied Europe, and also began to discover the horrific scale of the Holocaust.

An estimated six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime.

With the passage of time, there are fewer and fewer survivors who can tell the stories of what they witnessed and endured.

Once fringe ideas of Holocaust denial are spreading. Multiple members of President Donald Trump's administration have expressed support for Nazi sympathizers and people who promote antisemitism.

The stories of those who lived through the Holocaust are in danger of being forgotten. And there's a race against time to record as many as possible.

In this episode, the story of a Jewish man who survived Buchenwald and an American soldier, who helped liberate the concentration camp.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

80 years ago, Allied forces marched deep into the interior of Nazi Germany. CBS News

0:06.6

chronicled their advances. Front reports from Germany tell us that British troops of the second

0:11.0

army are now within seven miles of two important German cities. World War II was coming to an end in Europe,

0:17.8

but the world was only just beginning to discover the horrific scale of the

0:22.6

Holocaust. Permit me to tell you what you would have seen and heard had you been with me on

0:27.0

Thursday. It will not be pleasant listening. If you're at lunch or if you have no appetite to hear

0:33.5

what Germans have done, now is a good time to switch off the radio.

0:42.6

CBS News correspondent Edward R. Murrow was one of the first journalists to report from the Buchenwald concentration camp, an experience he shared with his radio audience.

0:46.9

There were two rows of bodies stacked up like cordwood. They were thin and very white.

0:53.4

Some of the bodies were terribly bruised, though there seemed to be little flesh to bruise.

0:58.4

Some had been shot through the head, but they bled but little.

1:02.1

All except two were naked.

1:04.0

The Buchenwald Memorial estimates more than 50,000 people were killed at the camp.

1:09.9

According to CBS, Murrow was so disturbed by what he saw

1:13.1

that it took him three days to write his report, and still, he worried listeners wouldn't

1:18.4

believe him. I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw

1:25.2

and heard, but only part of it.

1:28.1

For most of it, I have no words.

1:30.0

80 years later, Murrow's fear that people would deny the atrocities he witnessed is becoming more of a reality.

1:37.6

Once fringe ideas of Holocaust denial are spreading.

1:41.5

Multiple members of President Donald Trump's administration have expressed support

1:45.6

for Nazi sympathizers and people who promote anti-Semitism. And fewer survivors of the Holocaust

...

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