Lieutenant Arnold E. Samuelson

Army Signal OCS Class 43-25

— A Signal Corps Success —

 

This is the continuation of a story begun on our February 2018 Home Page. To go to an archived version of that page, click here: February 2018 Home Page Archive. To return to this month's actual Home Page, click on the Signal Corps orange Home Page menu item in the upper left corner of this page.

 

 

What one sees when one looks back today at the pictures and reads the reports produced by Army Signal Corps OCS graduate Samuelson and his men is the act of terror that comprised the Holocaust, come to life. Seeing his pictures, there can be no question as to whether the Holocaust was real or not. The pictures say it all.

For those, like the young millennial boyfriend of the bartender we began this story with… those who deny the Holocaust; part of the problem lies in not knowing what the Holocaust was. How does one define the Holocaust? Was it a Hitler thing, or a German thing? Was it an event, or an act against humanity? In reality, wasn’t it little more than the unintended consequence of war?

Most learned people today know that is not the case. To the contrary, it was the intended consequence of war, not the unintended consequence. More to the point, this particular intended consequence existed in absence of the pretense of war. That is, as Hitler said so emphatically in Mein Kampf, regardless of whether war provided a mask behind which the Jews could be exterminated or not, they needed to be exterminated. Lieutenant Samuelson and his men documented not just that fact but that belief by the Nazis.

As to how one should define the Holocaust, one of the more succinct definitions is provided by the Holocaust Encyclopedia:

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. 

Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire."

Proof of the Holocaust exists today because of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and men like Second Lieutenant Arnold E. Samuelson, a graduate of Army Signal OCS Class 42-03.

We owe a debt of gratitude to him and his men for their efforts to document society’s march through time, and the Jews' march through hell. There is no doubt that in the course of their photographing World War II, Samuelson and his men played a crucial role in developing the documentary evidence needed to prove the existence of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, the atrocities that we today call the Holocaust. 

Second Lieutenant Arnold E. Samuelson, a graduate of Army Signal OCS Class 42-03… another Signal Corps Success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Jones, Marla, “Photographers document wartime Army,” Army Communicator, Special Edition: The Signal Corps in World War II, vol. 20, no. 4.

Rodgers, Mike “Signal Corps photographers capture D-day,” Army Communicator, Special Edition: The Signal Corps in World War II, vol. 20, no. 4.

Various Samuelson background material: Histomil.com search for Battle of the Bulge

Historical background material, various quotations, pictures and reference material:

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC., including among others:

Holocaust Encyclopedia

Flossenburg

Holocaust Timeline of Events

Arnold E. Samuelson, Photographs  

 

 

 

Like this article? Let us know by helping us with our scholarship fund efforts. A $30.00 donation to our Scholarship Fund will help us get one step closer to helping another deserving High School graduate attend college. Your donation is tax deductible and your kindness will go farther than you think in making it possible for another young American citizen to fulfill their dream of a college education.
Thank You!

This page originally posted 1 February 2018