Question

"Outside, in addition to a huge mound of charred bone fragments, were the carefully sorted and stacked clothes of the victims - which obviously numbered in the thousands. Although I stood there looking at it, I couldn't believe it. The realness of the whole mess is just gradually dawning on me, and I doubt if it ever will on you. There is a rumor circulating which says that the war is over. It probably is - as much as it will ever be. We've all been expecting the end for several days, but were not too excited about it because we know that it does not mean too much as far as our immediate situation is concerned. There was no celebration - it's difficult to celebrate anything with the morbid state we're in." - letter from Harold Porter, 1945 The letter is describing the reaction to what?
A) American soldiers
B) German civilian
C) American civilian
D) American prisoners of war

Answer 1

The correct answer is A.

This letters describes the reaction to American soldiers entering the Dachau concentration camp after its liberation in 1945.

This letter was written on May 7th 1945 by Private First Class Harold Porter. It was written to his parents in Michigan and it describes in details the horrors seen there by the American soldiers. Porter served as a medic with the 116th Evacuation Hospital and he wrote this letter on stationery he found in the office of the camp commandant. This letter is now archived at the Eisenhower Presidential Library.

Before 1945 and facing the defeat, the Nazis transported thousands of prisoners from different concentration camps to Dachau. The resulting overcrowding led to an increase in the death rate ( 200 per day ). There was no way of disposing of the bodies of the dead prisoners who were just left lying around. Due to appalling living conditions, many prisoners died from rapidly spreading untreated tuberculosis and typhus.

The American soldiers were totally unprepared to register the huge number of  all the sick or dead bodies there. Porter's letter is thus very upsetting and despairing. The author describes the Nazi atrocities in a very 'unsparing and graphic' manner, making his experience there extremely  vivid. He fears he will never forget what he had seen there.

Answer 2

The correct answer is " A"

Harold R. Porter was a 22-year-old who had just graduated from the University of Michigan and worked as a surgical technician in the United States Army during World War II. In a series of letters to his family's house, he described the present conditions and his medical attention to the survivors. The fragment that is described comes from a letter that this soldier wrote to his parents and in it describes the situation in the Dachau concentration camp after the liberation.