"If I have offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I am not in the least sorry."On April 15, 1945, journalist Edward R. Murrow entered the Buchenwald concentration camp with the American Army and broadcast what he saw.In this disgusting era of attacks on journalism and journalists, and the appalling ignorance of the facts of the Holocaust, and the evil of its deniers, it is imperative to speak the truth, to hammer the truth home to those who are too lazy, too stupid, or too corrupt in their hearts to want to listen. Listen as well to what people said to him about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who died only a few days earlier on the 12th. Listen to when the world recognized moral American leadership and was grateful, in an era when we realized the democracies of the world were our friends and we knew we couldn't do it without them.
I am inclined to think fans of classic films have a better grounding in the study of history than those who do not watch classic films, but I really don't know that for a fact. I do know that those fans of classic films who indulge only in the fantasy aspects will deny themselves the greater value, and the greater privilege, of learning about the sometimes hard and gritty bedrock of the world in which those films were made.
