75 years ago today - March 23-24, 1946

[Ezra Taft Benson in post WWII Europe]
(Berlin) "The worst destruction I have witnessed was seen today," he wrote. ". . . I smelled the odor of decaying human bodies, saw half-starved women paying exorbitant prices anxiously for potato peelings." "The sisters have been ravished . . .," he continued. "Some have been beaten and flogged to insensibility, others murdered and still others deported . . ." "Words cannot begin to describe the ruin that has been heaped upon this once proud city," he told the First Presidency. "Traveling amid such surroundings leaves one with a feeling so appalling that it must be experienced to be understood." "The job of taking care of our Saints ...is over whelming," he admitted, "and as we contemplate their rehabilitation, it becomes staggering."

[Gary James Bergera, "Ezra Taft Benson's 1946 Mission to Europe" Journal of Mormon History 34:2 (Spring 2008)]

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