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Logan Square in Philadelphia in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
 

Liberation / The Master Race

 
 
Liberation side of the marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), February 25, 2022
1. Liberation side of the marker
Inscription.
Liberation
Leon Bass was born and raised in Philadelphia, the birthplace of America's Constitutional Democracy, and later became the principal of Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin High School. He was a young African-American soldier serving in a segregated army when he entered the Buchenwald concentration camp just after the German guards and executioners had fled.

"I remember going through those gates shortly after our men had gone through, and I saw the walking dead. I saw human beings who had been beaten, starved and tortured. They were standing there, skin and bones, dressed in striped pajamas. They had skeletal faces with deep-set yes. They had sores on their bodies. One man held out his hands, and they were webbed together with scabs due to malnutrition.

Something happened when I walked through the gates. My blinders came off. My tunnel vision dissipated. And I began to realize that human suffering is not delegated just to me and mine. Human suffering touches everybody. All people can suffer."


The Master Race
The Nazis divided the world into "superior" and "inferior" races and identified a series of victim groups.


Jews were the Nazis' primary victims but far from being their only ones.

The Nazis victimized trade unionists
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and social democrats for what they did and Jehovah's Witnesses for what they refused to do. They would neither swear allegiance to the state nor register for the draft.The words "Heil Hitler" never left their lips. The Nazis chose other victims for what they were — Roma and Sinti ("Gypsies") because they were regarded as asocial, and male homosexuals because of their behavior. German non-Jews with disabilities were regarded as "useless eaters" and their lives "unworthy of living," an embarrassment to the "master race." The Nazis used gas chambers to murder these persons with disabilities.

The Nazis regarded Jews as a cancer on German society and considered the total annihilation of Jewish men, women, and children as essential to the very survival of the "master race".
 
Erected 2018 by USC Shoah Foundation.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African AmericansCivil RightsLaw EnforcementWar, World II.
 
Location. 39° 57.301′ N, 75° 10.035′ W. Marker is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia County. It is in Logan Square. Marker is on Arch Street west of Benjamin Franklin Parkway, on the right when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1635 Arch St, Philadelphia PA 19103, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other
The Master Race side of the marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), February 25, 2022
2. The Master Race side of the marker
markers are within walking distance of this marker. Protecting Life and Liberty / Totalitarianism (here, next to this marker); Death Camps / American Democracy (here, next to this marker); Religious Persecution / Natural Rights (here, next to this marker); Bearing Witness / Human Equality (here, next to this marker); Freedom of Religion / Nuremberg Laws (here, next to this marker); Six Pillars (here, next to this marker); Theresienstadt Tree (a few steps from this marker); Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs (a few steps from this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Philadelphia.
 
Additional keywords. LGBT, LGBTQ, 🏳️‍🌈
 
Liberation / The Master Race Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), February 25, 2022
3. Liberation / The Master Race Marker
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on April 13, 2023. It was originally submitted on February 28, 2022, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 83 times since then and 8 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3. submitted on February 28, 2022, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.

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Mar. 28, 2024