These soldiers became not only liberators, but witnesses to one of the greatest atrocities in history.

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Across the world, from a hiding place in Holland to prison camps of Lausanne, the captives awaited their liberators.

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Many expressed gratitude to the United States for their newfound freedom but, in the same breath, they warned their liberators to leave Iraq and not divide their country.

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On a recent day, about a dozen prisoners of war held during World War II and their liberators gathered at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

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Even united, the Kurds may make reluctant liberators.

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Although the Czech coalition government has persuaded itself that the joint declaration will forestall financial and property claims by Sudeten Germans -- whose welcoming of Hitler's "liberators" was directly responsible for this ethnic minority's subsequent relocation to Bavaria -- it seems unlikely to have that effect.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy