[60 years ago today](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GERMANY_BUCHENWALD_ANNIVERSARY?SITE=APWEB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&reload=true) American troops broke through the barbed wire of Buchenwald, a Nazi death camp near Weimar. My maternal grandfather, Stan Yankunas, was one of the young servicemen that helped to liberated that camp. A soldier’s account, according to the AP report:

>”It was so incredible – stacks of bodies, the smell, the total shock and confusion, people walking around by the thousands,” he said. “We had no concept for this kind of insane cruelty.”

My mom tells me that my grandfather never talked about it, and that it drove him to drink for many years after the war–to forget.

I hope we never forget what we are capable of doing. The evil that lurks just beneath the surface.