| Original caption: “Senator Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky, a member of a congressional committee investigating Nazi atrocities, views the evidence at first hand at Buchenwald concentration camp.” Senator Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky (November 24, 1877 – April 30, 1956) stated in July 1953 that Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force General Dwight D. Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) cabled General George C. Marshall (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) and asked that a joint committee come over to view the Konzentrationslager (KZ) camps liberated by American forces in early 1945. Eisenhower didn’t think anybody would believe that such a thing existed unless they saw it themselves, and wanted a joint congressional committee to see the atrocities. As Senate Majority Leader, Marshall asked Barkley to lead the delegation, and he organized the committee and arrived in Weimar within 48 hours. Barkley called Buchenwald “hell on earth,” and described the horrors. “We went through this Buchenwald camp, and we saw things that were so terrible that you could hardly believe that in any civilized country or any civilized age they could be tolerated. We saw the results of their murders of the Jews, men and boys. We saw dead bodies piled up out in a court just like cordwood. We saw suffering, disease, hunger, and hopelessness.” The joint congressional committee, shocked, couldn’t believe that this wasn’t staged for their tour. They demanded to see Nordhausen. Barkley later said, “they executed them at the rate of 150 a day. Well, that was pretty horrible, and they still piled them up because they had run out of fuel and the incinerator wasn’t working. They had to pile these dead bodies out until they could get fuel to put them through the incinerator where they burned them.” Still in shock and disbelief, the committee went to Dachau. They viewed the gas chambers and boxcars full of corpses. Buckley later said, “after that Dachau experience, all of these senators said, ‘We don’t want to see anymore. We’re sick of these sights, and we’re convinced that it hasn’t been planted.’” Eisenhower’s speech on April 25, 1945, to members of Congress and Journalists who had been shown Buchenwald on the day before: “You saw only one camp yesterday. There are many others. Your responsibilities, I believe, extend into a great field, and informing the people at home of things like these atrocities is one of them…Nothing is covered up. We have nothing to conceal. The barbarous treatment these people received in the German concentration camps is almost unbelievable. I want you to see for yourself and be spokesmen for the United States.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii0540.jpg |
| Image Size | 847.83 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2948 x 2372 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 24, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Weimar |
| State or Province | Thuringia |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NRE-338-FTL(EF)-3134(2) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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