Rabbi Herschel Schacter Is Dead at 95; Cried to the Jews of Buchenwald: ‘You Are Free’

 Here's an fascinating obituary about the one of the first  Jews in the recently liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. On April 9, 1944,  Rabbi Herschel Schacter, attached to the Third Army’s VIII Corps, commandeered a driver and jeep and headed to Buchenwald where Allied tanks had already broken through the gates. Looking for survivors, he yelled, according to this story in the New York Times about the Rabbi's death, “Shalom Aleichem ihr zint frei!” (“Peace be upon you, Jews, you are free!”).   Here's another obituary you might enjoy.

The rabbi was recently honored for his work just last Friday in Israel in a meeting with President Obama.  If you're studying the Holocaust,  your students might find this article interesting.