Nothing that 22-year-old Pfc. Charles B. Edwards ever experienced in life could have prepared him for the horrors he saw in the German concentration camps.

He was serving with 433 Fighter Squadron in Germany when he wrote to his mother, Marie, who lived on Granville Street. He must have realized the importance of making others aware of the brutality he witnessed and shared the letter with the Newark attorney. He printed it on May 31, 1945. This is a continuation of the letter:

“And more pitiful that the dead were the still alive. These people will never be the same physically or mentally. They are a hungry and half-mad people. Their bodies will bear the scars of German brutality for the rest of their lives. I saw the bruises and scars on some of them, which had been put there from beatings with clubs.

Veterans column: Pfc. Charles B. Edwards, 22, of Newark, recounts Nazi concentration camps

“Whole families were in the camp. One little boy told me that his whole family was killed except his mother and himself. 1,500 were made to live in a barracks. Often seven or more slept in one bed. You can imagine the misery and sickness they had.

“The Germans had a hospital, but not for prisoners. It was for the Germans themselves. They used the prisoners as human guinea pigs. They infected them with various diseases to see how long they would live.

“On the day I was there, the prisoners (who were) able presented a service for the 51,000 slain comrades and also a thank you to the liberating American army. People marched in a large clearing, marching according to their country and carrying their nation’s flag in front of the columns. They tried to march, but it was all many could do to walk. But there was happiness on their faces. You can see pictures of them. There were reporters and photographers there.”

According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, “Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies established more than 44,000 camps and other places of incarceration (including ghettos). Perpetrators have used these sites for a number of purposes, including forced labor, the detention of people considered to be enemies of the state, and mass murder.”

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Edwards did not tell us the name of the camp he visited, but what he witnessed was seen by thousands of American troops as they liberated Europe; memories these men brought home with them.

Edwards was discharged and returned to Ohio. He attended Ohio State University and AAF Technical College in Chicago. He raised a family that worked and retired from IBM in Lexington, Kentucky.

Charles Edwards, 87, died on June 16, 2010 and was buried at Evergreen Memorial Gardens in Paris, Kentucky.

When he wrote home, he never dreamed he was recounting a period in history that some in future generations would claim never happened. Thanks to Edwards and many others, we know the truth.

To learn more about the Holocaust, the Licking County Library’s downtown Newark location is hosting a special exhibit, “Anne Frank: A History for Today.” The exhibit runs through Dec. 14 and was made possible in partnership with the Licking County Foundation. Doug Stout is the local history coordinator for the Licking County Library. He can be reached at 740.349.5571 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on the Newark Advocate: Veterans Column: Charles Edwards of Newark reports on the concentration camp