Eisenhower’s Great-grandson Warns Holocaust Denial Is Rising 80 Years After Wwii In Europe Ended

Eighty years aft the Holocaust, acold excessively galore group are either downplaying its severity aliases denying it altogether, warned Merrill Eisenhower Atwater, great-grandson of erstwhile President Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

His remarks came arsenic nations astir nan world connected Thursday commemorated nan 80th day of Victory successful Europe Day.

On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany formally surrendered to nan Allied powers, bringing an extremity to nan warfare successful Europe—a conflict that claimed nan lives of astir 40 cardinal people, including nan extermination of 6 cardinal Jews.

Last month, Eisenhower Atwater took portion successful nan March of nan Living connected Holocaust Remembrance Day, stepping alongside survivors and thousands of participants from astir nan world. The march traces nan way from Auschwitz to Birkenau, nan Nazi decease camps successful occupied Poland, successful a intense tribute to nan victims and successful grant of nan survivors and their liberators.

"When you’re sitting pinch 80 Holocaust survivors and some you and they are crying because of really typical nan infinitesimal is—and they show you, ‘Without your great-grandfather, this ne'er would person happened’—I say, without your bravery, this ne'er would person happened," Eisenhower Atwater told Fox News Digital connected Wednesday,

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The Ohrdruf attraction campy adjacent Buchewald, Germany. Then-American Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, commandant successful main of nan European Allied forces, and his soldiers discovered 70 prisoners who had been changeable down successful nan courtyard successful Germany connected April 4. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

"One personification equals aggregate lives that were saved. It wasn’t conscionable nan liberation of nan camps—it was redeeming generations," he added.

Among nan march’s participants was Israel Meir Lau, erstwhile main rabbi of Israel and a kid subsister of Buchenwald, who personally met Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who led nan Allied violative against nan Nazis successful Europe, during nan camp’s liberation.

Also remembered was Chaim Herzog, begetter of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who was connected manus for nan march. A British service serviceman during World War II, Chaim Herzog played a domiciled successful liberating nan Bergen-Belsen attraction camp. His father, Yitzhak Isaac Halevi Herzog—who would besides go a main rabbi of Israel—met pinch Gen. Eisenhower successful 1946 arsenic portion of a ngo to assistance Jewish survivors crossed postwar Europe.

Eisenhower Atwater called his inclusion "humbling" and said nan march allowed him to "sit and talk pinch unsung heroes."

Merrill Eisenhower Atwater and Eva Clarke successful Auschwitz connected April 23, 2025. (Photo by Chen Schimmel /International March of nan Living)

One subsister successful particular, Eva Clarke, near a heavy impression. "She’s 1 of nan kindest souls I’ve ever met. Finding retired that nan state ran retired conscionable a mates days earlier she was born—that’s divine intervention," he told Fox News Digital. "She led nan way. Just an unthinkable female pinch an unthinkable story. She should animate everyone."

Clarke was calved connected April 29, 1945 astatine nan gates of Mauthausen attraction camp, 1 of only 3 known babies to person survived commencement there.

Clarke’s mother, Anka Kauderova, endured 3 and a half years successful attraction camps: Theresienstadt successful then-Czechoslovakia, Auschwitz, and nan Freiberg enslaved labour campy and armament mill successful Germany. She was yet transported successful unfastened ember wagons, on pinch 2,000 different prisoners, connected a grueling 17-day travel without nutrient and pinch minimal h2o to Mauthausen.

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"My parents were successful Theresienstadt for 3 years, which was unusually long. They were young, strong, and capable to work. To immoderate extent, it was a transit campy to a decease camp," Clarke told Fox News Digital.

"At nan extremity of September 1944, their luck ran out. My begetter was sent to Auschwitz, and incredibly, my mother volunteered to travel him nan adjacent day. She didn’t cognize wherever he was going and, ever nan optimist, believed it couldn’t get worse and they’d survive," she said.

Anka ne'er saw her hubby again. An eyewitness later told her that he was changeable and killed successful nan decease march adjacent Auschwitz connected Jan. 18, 1945. Auschwitz was liberated by nan Russian service connected Jan. 27.

In 1943, Anka became pregnant. "It was dangerous, but she met my begetter secretly. Becoming pregnant successful a attraction campy was considered a crime punishable by death," Clarke said.

Eva Clarke arsenic a babe held by her mother successful Mauthausen attraction campy aft liberation. (Courtesy: Eva Clarke)

Her relative was calved successful February 1944 but died of pneumonia 2 months later. "Had my mother arrived astatine Auschwitz pinch a babe successful her arms, some would person been sent to nan state chamber. Nobody knew she was pregnant again—with me."

In April 1945, Anka was sent to Mauthausen. "It’s a beautiful colony connected nan Danube successful Austria, but nan campy sits connected a steep elevation down it. When my mother saw nan sanction astatine nan train station, she was shocked—she had heard really horrific it was. That daze apt triggered her labor, and she began giving commencement to me," Clarke said.

She credits her endurance to timing. "On April 28, the Nazis ran retired of gas. I was calved connected April 29. Hitler committed termination connected April 30. On May 5, nan American 11th Armored Division liberated nan camp."

When nan Americans arrived, they brought nutrient and medicine—though many, weakened, died upon receiving them. Three weeks later, erstwhile Anka regained strength, U.S. forces repatriated her to Prague. There, Anka met her 2nd husband, and nan 2 near to debar surviving nether communism, yet settling successful nan U.K.

Eva Clarke, a Holocaust subsister calved successful nan Mauthausen attraction campy successful 1945, meets Merrill Eisenhower, great-grandson of President Dwight Eisenhower, successful Washington, D.C., connected Feb. 26, 2025.  (Photo by Yossi May/International March of nan Living)

"I consciousness Merrill is my caller champion friend," Clarke said of Eisenhower Atwater. "It was overwhelming to meet personification whose great-grandfather played specified an important domiciled successful ending nan war. I was delighted to reconnect pinch him again successful Auschwitz a fewer weeks ago. Everyone wanted to convey him for what his great-grandfather did."

Clarke will return to Mauthausen this Sunday to people nan 80th day of its liberation by U.S. forces. "I’ll beryllium location pinch 2 different babies who were calved nether akin circumstances. We are truthful grateful, I can’t moreover definitive it," she told Fox News Digital.

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Reflecting connected nan civilized clarity his great-grandfather exemplified, Eisenhower Atwater underscored that we are each quality beings first.

"We each cognize correct from wrong. It is incorrect to termination people, incorrect to put babies successful ovens, incorrect to put group successful state chambers. That’s clear," he said.

He acknowledged that Holocaust denial often stems from disbelief. "It’s easy to opportunity thing didn’t hap because it’s difficult to comprehend nan decease of that galore people. I get that. But it did happen. Nazi Germans killed 10,000 group a day—it’s well-documented. They documented it themselves, and nan Allied forces saw it first-hand.

"Nobody really wants to talk astir nan decease of six cardinal group complete a five-to-six-year period," he added. "But it’s nan truth."