A Lesson in Horror

The good folks at the American Airpower Museum have hosted a myriad of events, honoring a wide range of people and subjects, but Wednesday's event may have been the most poignant. The museum recently acquired a WWII M8 Greyhound armored scout car, which was introduced at a ceremony this week.



To welcome the new arrival, the museum chose to focus on one of the Greyhound's most important roles. As a scout vehicle, it primarily served at the leading edge of the armored divisions moving across Europe as the Second World War drew to a close. In that position, it was Army units in Greyhounds that liberated many of the Nazi concentration camps as they moved forward chasing retreating German troops.

May 5 marked 65 years to the day that the camp at Mauthausen was freed. The museum invited a survivor of that camp, along with Army veterans who had help liberate those camps, to speak at the ceremony.

Thea Gotesmann-Rumstein, a survivor of the Mauthausen camp, describes her experiences.


WWII Army veterans helped free prisoners, saving countless lives.


The Greyhound was displayed behind a barbed wire fence, giving visitors a view similar to that which camp survivors saw when the American units arrived.


Listening to the stories told about the Holocaust, it was hard to find a dry eye in the house. Survivors of these horrors are getting to be fewer and few as each year goes by - hearing their stories firsthand evokes emotions not felt when reading a sterile history book. It was an amazing, emotional ceremony, one that was not to be missed.