A Day of Remembrance and Gratitude

Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton watch a demonstration of Nazi torture

Today is Memorial Day. If anyone should recognize the sacrifices of the American military, it is the Jewish people. It was the supreme allied commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower who led the invasion of Normandy at Omaha Beach in France so as to enable the defeat of the Nazis in World War II. Omaha Beach was a virtual slaughter house as wave after wave of soldiers moved forward into massive gunfire by the enemy. Many soldiers died or became permanently injured. And yet they kept on coming until the eventually landed and overcame the enemy.

One of the images that will be seared into my memory will be the tour Eisenhower took into one of the liberated camps. What he encountered was the unimaginable and yet true events of torture that took place at the hands of the Nazis, while the German citizens looked the other way. Eisenhower went to a nearby town and forced the entire town to go to one of those camps to see what their leaders had done… and forced those townspeople to help bury the dead.  

I think it is only right to think of all the sacrifices that American soldiers did for the sake of triumphing over evil… an evil directed primarily against us. We owe those men… and this country an tremendous debt of gratitude. God bless them and God bless the United States of America.