
Hell Before Their Very Eyes
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Narrated by:
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Joe Barrett
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By:
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John C. McManus
About this listen
On April Fourth, 1945, United States Army units from the 89th Infantry Division and the Fourth Armored Division seized Ohrdruf, the first of many Nazi concentration camps to be liberated in Germany. In the weeks that followed, as more camps were discovered, thousands of soldiers came face to face with the monstrous reality of Hitler's Germany.
These men discovered the very depths of human-imposed cruelty and depravity: railroad cars stacked with emaciated, lifeless bodies; ovens full of incinerated human remains; warehouses filled with stolen shoes, clothes, luggage, and even eyeglasses; prison yards littered with implements of torture and dead bodies; and - perhaps most disturbing of all - the half-dead survivors of the camps. For the American soldiers of all ranks who witnessed such powerful evidence of Nazi crimes, the experience was life altering. Almost all were haunted for the rest of their lives by what they had seen, horrified that humans from ostensibly civilized societies were capable of such crimes.
Military historian John C. McManus sheds new light on this often-overlooked aspect of the Holocaust. Drawing on a rich blend of archival sources and thousands of firsthand accounts - including unit journals, interviews, oral histories, memoirs, diaries, letters, and published recollections - Hell before Their Very Eyes focuses on the experiences of the soldiers who liberated Ohrdruf, Buchenwald, and Dachau and their determination to bear witness to this horrific history.
©2018 John C. McManus (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- By: John C. McManus
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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June 6, 1944, was a pivotal moment in the history of World War II. On that day the climactic and decisive phase of the war in Europe began. Those who survived the intense fighting on the Normandy beaches found their lives irreversibly changed. That day ushered in a great change for the United States as well, because on D-day America began its march to the forefront of the Western world. By the end of the Battle of Normandy, almost one out of every two soldiers involved was an American.
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Great Book
- By Byron Sarchet on 01-15-21
By: John C. McManus
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To the End of the Earth
- The US Army and the Downfall of Japan, 1945
- By: John C. McManus
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The dawn of 1945 finds a US Army at its peak in the Pacific. Allied victory over Japan is all but assured. The only question is how many more months—or years—of fight does the enemy have left. John C. McManus’s magisterial series, described by the Wall Street Journal as being “as vast and splendid as Rick Atkinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Liberation Trilogy,” returns with this brilliant final volume.
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Amazing history
- By sammy on 02-26-24
By: John C. McManus
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Island Infernos
- The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944
- By: John C. McManus
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 25 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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After some two years at war, the Army in the Pacific held ground across nearly a third of the globe, from Alaska’s Aleutians to Burma and New Guinea. The challenges ahead were enormous: supplying a vast number of troops over thousands of miles of ocean; surviving in jungles ripe with dysentery, malaria, and other tropical diseases; fighting an enemy prone to ever-more desperate and dangerous assaults. Yet the Army had proven they could fight. Now, they had to prove they could win a war.
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Wonderful book, but incomplete and poorly narrated.
- By Linda S. on 02-24-22
By: John C. McManus
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The Vietnam War
- By: John C. McManus, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: John C. McManus
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Original Recording
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In The Vietnam War, you will learn about the causes and consequences of the war in Vietnam. You will explore the scope of American intervention from air campaigns to large-scale military operations on the ground. You will survey the history of Vietnam from colonial Indochina onward, getting to know the homegrown ideas, personalities, and politics that would come to shape the conflict. You will reconstruct major military operations like the Tet Offensive and Rolling Thunder.
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information
- By boznremtp on 12-22-22
By: John C. McManus, and others
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September Hope
- The American Side of a Bridge Too Far
- By: John C. McManus
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In September Hope, acclaimed historian John C. McManus explores World War II’s most ambitious invasion, an immense, daring offensive to defeat Nazi Germany before the end of 1944. Operation Market-Garden is one of the war’s most famous, but least understood, battles, and McManus tells the story of the American contribution to this crucial phase of the war in Europe.
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Go yanks go !
- By Alan on 03-06-13
By: John C. McManus
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Midway
- The Pacific War’s Most Famous Battle
- By: Mark Stille
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Midway is the most famous naval battle of the Pacific War, and one of the most mythologized. The traditional view of the battle, popularized in its immediate aftermath and surviving through to the present day, is of a heavily outnumbered American force snatching victory in the face of overwhelming odds. This view is simplistic and, in many respects, wrong. Pacific War expert Mark Stille provides a detailed analysis of this pivotal battle, and argues that Midway was neither a miraculous American victory, nor a product of good fortune.
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Authors need to leave personal opinions out of history books
- By Roberto G on 12-28-24
By: Mark Stille
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Dead Reckoning
- The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots Took on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor
- By: Dick Lehr
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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“AIR RAID, PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NOT DRILL.” At 7:58 a.m. on December 7, 1941, an officer at the Ford Island Command Center frantically typed what would become one of the most famous radio dispatches in history as the Japanese navy launched a surprise aerial assault on the American navy stationed in Hawaii. In a little over two hours, the Japanese killed more than 2,400 Americans and propelled the US’s entry into World War II. Dead Reckoning is the story of the mission to avenge that devastating strike.
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Half Soap Opera, target audience 20 something male
- By Donald L. Hogan on 03-20-21
By: Dick Lehr
What listeners say about Hell Before Their Very Eyes
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- Subway
- 12-06-22
Everyone should read or listen To this
Gut-wrenching narrative of the US troops who liberated Nazi concentration camps in spring 1945. The horror they witnessed and experienced in discovering, freeing, and caring for the victims incarcerated there must never pass from memory. The ghastly details are presented almost entirely in first-person quotations from the participants, and do a creditable job of portraying their disbelief, inability to comprehend, and guilt, often giving way to blind rage and hatred of the German instigators.
Awareness is the first step toward preventing recurrence. The bestiality of the Nazi regime must never be allowed to happen again.
Well-read except for the reader’s annoying habit of assuming a stilted accent whenever someone is quoted.
Many thanks to Audible for making this volume available free of charge.
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- C K Brindley
- 06-16-23
Moving
I don’t get emotional often when reading books like this. I will not forget this book and would recommend it to anyone that is both a historical knowledge seeker. Very moving and the narrator was excellent.
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- Jacqueline
- 01-07-23
Great documentary of those who witnessed
The reader was perfect for the tone/message of this book.
Looking for the experiences of those who discovered and liberated camps and the aftermath of caring for the survivors this is it. First hand reports, discussion of policies and organizing as well as personal experience. I am so glad I got this book.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-29-23
Good book
Content is great but it needed a different narrator. Despite this the author gives a vivid description of the liberations
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- A. Adams
- 10-11-20
loved it
it is an interesting view from the soilders view instead of the inmates. I have read many memoirs from survivors and even accounts of the guards, but to liberators shine a new light on the camps. very well written.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Linda
- 09-18-20
Compelling story well told
This was a compelling story very well written and the narration by Joe Barrett was a pleasure to listen to.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-27-22
Fascinating account of Holocaust liberation
I visited Yad Vashem years ago as part of my college education. This account of the liberation of some of the concentration camps by American soldiers at the close of WW2 is unique and thought provoking. Mr McManus did a terrific job in writing and Joe Barrett's performance was perfect for this subject matter.
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- IsleWait
- 01-08-21
#MyNonFictionAddiction
I only can say it was a challenge to my emotional homeostasis. Such a revelation can never be endured without some Kleenex & maybe a friendly drink. The barbaric evils are hard to know; truth doesn't change though upon its impact. The human heart holds the tears of far too many tragedies. To tell it is necessary, and to read it, an obligation to the dead. 🔍🗝😢
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- Firemedic
- 01-25-22
Never forget
I found this to be an amazing account of the Holocaust as seen through the eyes of the troops who liberated them. This should be required reading for high school seniors so our future generations never let this tragedy happen again.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-03-21
Unique perspective
Important & thought-provoking. Meticulously written and perfectly narrated. Even hardened soldiers were brought to tears in disbelief of what they saw.
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1 person found this helpful