Buchenwald liberator's death moves CNN.com readers
Story Highlights
CNN.com receives outpouring of messages after Buchenwald liberator's death
Family of James Hoyt Sr. moved by all those who have sent them messages
Son on his father: "Why do we fight this hard in war ... if we don't learn from it?"
Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents and producers share their experience in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. Here, CNN.com's Wayne Drash describes an outpouring of responses since last week's obituary on one of the first liberators of the Buchenwald concentration camp at the end of World War II.
James Hoyt Sr.,
seen in 2005, was one of the first four
U.S. soldiers to find the Buchenwald
concentration camp.
AUG. 22, 2008
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The voice on the other end of the phone line spoke in a gentle, hushed tone.
"They put us on what you call the Hitler Highway. On the highway, we saw massacres of people being slaughtered off the highway," Anthony Acevedo said.
"You could see people of all ages, hanging on barbed wire. They had been shot or were being shot at."
He had read about the death of James Hoyt Sr. last week and felt the need to reach out. America had just lost another of its aging World War II heroes.
In April 1945, Hoyt was one of the first four U.S. soldiers to see Germany's Buchenwald concentration camp, beginning the liberation of 21,000 prisoners there. See the horrors of Buchenwald »
Acevedo explained he was an American soldier who had been a captive at a satellite camp of Buchenwald, one of only a few hundred U.S. soldiers ever held there. He said he was on a death march about 220 miles from Buchenwald at the time of liberation.
His call was among an outpouring of messages since CNN ran a story on Hoyt's August 11 death at age 83 in his hometown of Oxford, Iowa. Read about his life
One group in Germany said it had tried to reach him for decades to thank him properly. It included a photograph of a small glass memorial near Buchenwald.
The names of the four original liberators -- Capt. Frederic Keffer, Tech. Sgt. Herbert Gottschalk, Sgt. Harry Ward and Hoyt, a private first class -- are on it.
"On April 11, 1945, the village Hottelstedt was the point of departure of the patrol of Combat Team 9, 6th Armored Division, U.S. Third Army, which discovered the concentration camp of Buchenwald," it says.
Others were simply touched by Hoyt's story.
"I hope that this American hero's family reads these comments and knows that his sacrifice has touched people around the country and around the world. In an age of hubris and ego, of warfare and terrorism, this humble man truly exemplifies what I would like to think being an American really stands for," wrote a CNN.com message boarder named Seth. "God bless you, Mr. Hoyt."
Another named Gary said his maternal grandfather lost his entire family in the "flames of Buchenwald and Auschwitz."
"People like Mr. Hoyt are real heroes and truly show the goodness that humans are capable of. This modest, quiet man is now sitting at the right hand of God and he will hold that place of honor for eternity," Gary said.
