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The Liberators of Mauthausen

JL;DR SUMMARY The article highlights the vital roles played by three American Jewish soldiers—Major Eugene Cohen, Jack Nowitz, and Benjamin Ferencz—in liberating and documenting Nazi concentration camps, particularly Mauthausen, at the end of World War II. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

HolocaustConcentration CampsJewish SoldiersWar CrimesLiberationNuremberg TrialsMauthausenCohen ReportUs ArmyBenjamin Ferencz

Places mentioned

Ebensee, Upper Austria, Austria
"Eugene Cohen, May 1945, Ebensee, Austria."
Washington, Washington DC, United States
"we met for the first time at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC."
Newark, New Jersey, United States
"Jack Nowitz was born in Newark, New Jersey, and lived most of his life in Connecticut, graduating from Yale College and Yale Law School."
Connecticut, United States
"Jack Nowitz was born in Newark, New Jersey, and lived most of his life in Connecticut, graduating from Yale College and Yale Law School."
Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Austria
"May 14, 1945 Mauthausen Translation and Testimony of Ernst Martin and Josef Ulbrecht, signed by interpreter Jack Nowitz and Investigating Officer Eugene Cohen as part of the Cohen Report."
Munich, Bavaria, Germany
"Ben Ferencz driving a jeep in Munich, 1945."
Flossenbürg, Thuringia, Germany
"when Ferencz first entered the Flossenbrg concentration camp on April 27,1945, all the stories, photos, and prior intelligence briefings about what actually occurred at these places were immediately laid bare in the most explicit manner;"
Buchenwald, Thuringia, Germany
"Buchenwald, for example, was one of the first camps."
Israel
"Ann recalls traveling in Israel in 1991: I visited Yad Vashem, and, in an exhibit on the liberation of the concentration camps, I saw a picture of my father."
Kyiv, Ukraine
"33,771 men, women and children shot or buried alive in the ravine near Kyiv called Babi Yar;"
Riga, Latvia
"the two-day liquidation of 25,000 Latvian Jews from Rigas ghetto, forced to lie down in pits and shot."
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
"Ferencz and Nowitz both served as translators and investigators under Cohen, a native of Pittsburgh and a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, who was the head of the War Crimes Commission of the 3rd U.S. Army, charged with investigating the Mauthausen Concentration Camp Complex."
Spain
"In 2009, the Cohen Report was cited in a Spanish court to support the testimony of Mauthausen survivors and relatives of victims in a case that sought to have the United States extradite four alleged former camp guards on charges of genocide."

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Cairo Item ID 50706
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Retrieved 2025-05-02 05:30:47 UTC
Curated 2025-05-02 08:30:43 UTC