French communist Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, on Jan. 28, 1946, delivered gruesome testimony before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. One year and one day had passed since the liberation of Auschwitz, one of several camps where the journalist was imprisoned for her participation in the French Resistance.

An impassioned Vaillant-Couturier told of the Nazis’ inhumane treatment, including forced sterilizations and abortions, dangerous and unexplained medical testing, crowding, overwork, and diseases resulting from inadequate clothing, food, and sanitation. She recalled watching Jewish families separated on arrival at Auschwitz, with more than three-quarters of the new arrivals sent straight to the camp’s gas chambers.