At 21 years of age, Army Private Donald Burdick had already seen death.
A member of Patton's third division, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge and landed on Utah Beach in June 1944, but he said nothing could prepare him for what he saw when he liberated Dachau concentration camp outside Munich, Germany.
"I had no idea what had happened here. Couldn't stand the smell. It really got to you," said Burdick, who now lives in Forks Township, Northampton County.
Burdick said his convoy stopped outside the camp, next to a long line of railroad cars.
"All those railroad cars, roughly between 25, 30 cars, which was some of the pictures that I have, were all full of dead bodies," recalled Burdick.
Burdick had a camera with him.
"We had to go through those cars, seeing if any SS troopers were hid under any of those bodies, trying to get away," said Burdick.
Burdick said some of the troops were vomiting because of what they were seeing, and the farther they went, the worse it got. He said he will never forget what he found when he walked into the gas chambers.
"Blood, urine and feces all over the place. Dead bodies intermingled, and the smell, if you can imagine," said Burdick.
It was an experience Burdick shut away when he returned home. He got married, had a family and became a biology teacher, but all the while, the memories of Dachau were in the back of his head.
"For a while, I couldn't even talk about it, but then I got listening to people saying the Holocaust never existed, and that go a little bit under the skin," said Burdick. "I know it was real because I saw it. For me, that was the worst of the worst."
That prompted Burdick to start talking about what he saw, to share his memories with others as part of The Holocaust Resource Center of the Lehigh Valley's education program.
Burdick said his words aren't just a history lesson, but a life lesson on how to stand up and stop everyday cruelties before they metastasize into something horrific.
"People should know, know the signs of something like this when it's happening," said Burdick.
By spreading the word, Burdick said he hopes he can help ensure atrocities like those of Nazi Germany never happen again.
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