There is no disputing historical facts

"The things I saw beggar description ... The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering ... I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations to propaganda."

These words were spoken by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II. On April 15, 1945, Eisenhower and generals George Patton and Omar Bradley visited the Ohrdruff concentration camp.

Seventy-six years later, Gina Peddy, the executive director of curriculum and instruction for the Carroll Independent School District Southlake, Texas, would tell teachers they must teach "opposing" perspectives on the Holocaust if they chose to have their students study it.

Eisenhower was responding in the moment to the atrocities he witnessed. However, he also understood human nature well enough to foresee that Holocaust denial was a future possibility.

Fortunately, Eisenhower took actions to ensure that the horrifying truth of the Holocaust would be documented. He invited members of the U.S. Congress and British Parliament, as well as journalists and German citizens to view the "indisputable evidence" of "barbarous treatment" at Ohrdruff.

After Peddy's controversial statement was made public, her superintendent, Lane Ledbetter, stated, "We recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust."

Eisenhower's words remain a timely reminder that there are not opposing perspectives on historical facts.

Linda Smoucha

Arlington Heights