New Presentation
coming in Sep. 2022

Liberators &
The Holocaust

The word “Liberator” brings to mind images of cheering crowds, relieved soldiers and celebratory parades through the streets of Rome, Paris or countless villages across war-torn Europe. Such was not the case in the spring of 1945 when American soldiers, including those from Minnesota, were pushing the German Army east in the waning days of World War II.

As these GIs moved east, they came across Buchenwald, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, and scores of other camps. Instead of the joyous scenes of liberation, Allied soldiers liberated the last victims of what would be called the Holocaust.

Our young Americans, who had seen so much death and tragedy fighting their way across Europe, had never seen this. They were confronted with the putrid odor of acres and acres of barracks packed with the dead and dying.

The sick and emaciated inmates who were strong enough, rose to their feed, hands folded, crying with a joyful disbelief that their ordeal at the hands of the Nazis was, at last, over.

Allied soldiers put an end to the Nazi atrocities that had, in fact, been unfolding for twelve years and took the lives of five to six million Jews, over 600,000 Gypsies, and another five million Slavs, and other peoples conscripted for slave labor, political opponents, and others deemed unfit to live.

The origin of this evil began in 1933 when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power promising to restore unity, prosperity, and national pride to a strife-ridden and suffering Germany in the midst of a severe economic depression.

Following the old adage that “Those who do not learn their history, will find themselves repeating the mistakes of the past,” Historical Experiences will bring this story to life in “Liberators,” a multi-media presentation that premieres this fall.

Mr. Kind will relate the tragic story of how the Holocaust was perpetrated by the Nazi Party and how a nation of cultured people with a proud heritage were persuaded to allow and even carry out the worst genocide in the history of the world. Most importantly, he will share the first-person accounts of American soldiers, including Minnesotans who came across and liberated these camps.

For many, this experience changed their lives forever.

We are now taking reservations for this fall, contact us below to schedule this fascinating presentation at your location.

Developed in partnership with the Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum.
Topics eligible for all (1.5 to 5 hour) presentation lengths
  • Birth of a Our Nation: The Revolutionary War
  • The Divided Union: The American Civil War
  • The World at War: WWII
  • Minnesota’s Fabulous Firsts
  •   Topics eligible for shorter (1.5 to 3 hour) presentation lengths
  • The Viking Age
  • The French Voyageur in the Fur Trade
  • Pirates: Predators of the Sea
  • Minnesota in the American Civil War
  • The Northfield Bank Raid: Minnesotan's Foil the James-Younger Gang
  • The Great War: World War I
  • Minnesota's Wild and Woolly Prohibition Days
  • Lucky Lindy
  • The U.S.S. Ward: Minnesotan's Fire the First Shot in the Pacific War
  • D-Day, June 6, 1944: Operation Overlord
  • Liberators and The Holocaust
  • Korea: The Forgotten War 
  • Minnesota & the Vietnam War

  •   Most of the topics can be presented with an emphasis on what part Minnesota played in them.

     

      Is the presentation topic you're looking for not listed here? 
    Let me know and I will research and create a presentation for you on that topic.

     

    Presentation Fees

      Presentations range from 1.5 hour to 5 hour-all day-immersion experiences. 1.5 to 3 hours is the most common length.  Presentation length can be adapted to suit your needs.

  • Short presentation (1.5 to 3 hours long) $650 plus mileage*
  • Multiple Short presentations (Same topic, one location) Multiple presentations of  the same topic, same day, for additional groups of people. $890 plus mileage* for entire day.
  • Multiple Short presentations - (Same topic, multiple locations requiring set up and take-(down) $650 per presentation plus mileage*. 
  • Full Day Presentation (5 hours long) - Full day, immersion presentations allow time for in-depth study and understanding, they are very popular  among teachers, who call them "History Field Trip days". $890 plus mileage*

  • * Mileage is calculated at the current I.R.S. rate of $0.67 per mile round-trip  from Mankato, MN (presenter’s residence) to the presentation site and back.

    Call or email to schedule your Historical Experience

    Phone: (507) 381-0898 - Email: arnkind@historicalexperiences.org