In April 1945, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower walked through the newly liberated Ohrdruf concentration camp, a subcamp of Buchenwald in central Germany. He went deliberately.

What he saw, he later wrote, “beggar[ed] description.” Eisenhower was already thinking beyond the horror in front of him. He wanted firsthand evidence in case people someday dismissed reports of Nazi atrocities as propaganda. He later urged journalists and members of Congress to visit the liberated camps and see the evidence themselves.