To be fair, denial was the order of the day for basically everyone. There is no shortage of historical precedent when it comes to a nation trying to whitewash the uglier pages of its history. It’s kind of amazing that anyone ever thought there would be no attempt to deny or downplay the Holocaust.

Eisenhower was always a superb organizer, and stood out from his contemporaries for having a better sense of his own place in the overall system and the vast responsibility that came with it. Other generals often neglected certain areas of their responsibility, particularly the political aspects (which is understandable, as many had little experience outside traditional military matters). Inviting the press and making the thorough documentation of the Holocaust a key policy set him apart from many contemporaries who essentially waived it off as the usual wartime atrocities one sees in war that quickly gets forgotten about by most people.