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He knew the difference between reality and ‘fake news’

The first time I went to take a photo of the Glencoe graduating Class of 1940, lined up along the far wall were a bevy of wheeled walkers. Lining up the class for a photo might take awhile, I thought.
There among the elderly group was a tall, ramrod-straight fellow who stood head and shoulders above everyone else. The man turned out to be Merrill Burgstahler. The naturally curious thing to do as a journalist was to go over and talk with him. That was in 2009.
Turns out he was a veteran of World War II, as were most of the other octogenarian men in the class. But Mr. Burgstahler’s story of the war was a bit more unusual than others I had heard, so I opted to go visit him in his Minnetonka home and get his story for The Chronicle.
His story was indeed fascinating and one of the featured stories in my newest book “Old Warriors.”
Mr. Burgstahler was with the 77th anti-aircraft artillery division, 6th Armored Division that spent over 220 days in combat in Europe.
His unit was near Buchenwald when that notorious concentration camp was liberated. He saw first-hand what the Nazis had done to exterminate the Jews and other undesirables by the hundreds of thousands, and eventually millions.
But it was what happened after the war that shocked him as well. The first shock was when he returned home and told his family about what he had witnessed.
They didn’t believe him.
They didn’t believe Germans were capable of such barbarity. So he clammed up for decades, not speaking about the Holocaust.
But when historical revisionists started to question whether the Holocaust ever happened, he renewed his efforts to tell whoever would listen the Holocaust happened, and he had witnessed the horrendous results.
Today, with the tribal approach of both Democrats and Republicans, whenever a news report is unfavorable to their cause, it is labeled “fake news.” No one believes what is being reported as news because people like our president dismiss it with a wave of his hand if it doesn’t fit this agenda. Therefore, it must not be true. His followers believe him.
Well, Mr. Burgstahler understood too well what happens when people fall for distorted propaganda and do not look for the actual facts. The Holocaust is the most blatant example of a whole nation falling for propaganda that is popular but morally corrupt.
But it is hard to argue with first-hand experiences and eye witnesses, especially when there are photos to back it up.
That is why Mr. Burgstahler was such an important connection between what happened and what could happen again.
Sadly, his voice has been silenced.
Mr. Burgstahler died Nov. 6 at the age of 96. I think he was the last of the living World War II veterans I interviewed for my book. Hopefully, his eyewitness account of the Holocaust will live on and not be lost to history like so many other first-hand viewpoints.
So casually labeling something as fake news has more than muddied the facts, it is outright dangerous. That’s what Mr. Burgstahler was trying to tell us.

Rich Glennie was the editor of The Chronicle for 23 years. He retired Aug. 1, 2014.