A Holocaust exhibit, which opens at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on Thursday, April, 28, tells the story of the atrocities committed by the Nazis through a unique lens: the eyes of American soldiers in World War II, according to a report in The Herald News.

American soldiers helped end Nazi rule, liberating Western Europe and freeing the Jews, Gypsies, disabled, homosexuals and others whom Adolf Hitler and the Nazis considered “undesirable.” Six million died at the hands of Nazi atrocities.

The exhibit, “When Humanity Fails,” on display through May 5 at UMD’s Woodland Commons, is being brought to UMass by the university’s Center for Jewish Culture, Afakim Foundation and the U.S. Army Center for Military History. It tells the story through archival photographs and film footage, personal audio testimonies and interactive displays.

The exhibit is intended to “make people stop and think about how not to be evil in times of evil,” Rabbi Jacqueline Satlow of the UMass Dartmouth Center for Jewish Culture said.

That’s an important message to consider as the U.S. today debates its humanitarian role in addressing genocide in Darfur, as well as in addressing humanitarian concerns in Libya and other Middle Eastern countries.

The Herald News report says that the exhibit is also timely in light of the commemoration this past Sunday of the Armenian Genocide during World War I at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, which claimed the lives of 1.5 million Armenians. The Turkish government to this day adamantly denies that genocide was ever committed.

As philosopher Geroge Santayana said, “Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.”