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The stench of death was everywhere when the 71st infantry of the United States Army liberated the Gunskirchen concentration camp in Austria in 1945.

Alan Moskin, a member of the infantry that liberated the camp, spoke about his experiences at Temple Beth Ahm in Aberdeen May 3.

"I could never forget the horrors I witnessed in Gunskirchen," Moskin said.

Moskin, who grew up in Englewood, wasn't religious, but was always proud of being a Jew. In 1943, he attended Syracuse University and the next year he received his draft notice. Before heading overseas and fighting in the wear, all soldiers had to go through three months of rigorous basic training, he said.

"Basic training was learning how to kill or be killed," he said.

Growing up in Englewood, he never experienced racism, however, in basic training there was a great deal of it. Moskin suffered many broken noses after he fought the soldiers who made racist comments to him and black soldiers.

When they arrived overseas they were led by General George S. Patton. Patton pushed the 71st infantry further east than other group of soldiers, he said. One of the scariest days was his fourth day on the line, when he felt something on his shoulder; he looked up, and saw an arm with a tattoo of an eagle. The arm belonged to one of his fellow soldiers and friends, Willie. Willie, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"The first time you are on the line you are scared," Moskin said. "Anyone who says they're not is a liar."

In addition to Willie, Moskin witnessed many of his close friends' gruesome and bloody deaths while in combat. One day in combat, he looked up and saw his best friend T.R.'s remains.

"Not a sight I could ever forget," Moskin said. "It kind of messes you up upstairs."

Patton truly loved the art of war, he said.

"For a young soldier, he was bigger than life," he said.

The soldiers had no idea that there were concentration camps, he said. In April of 1945, the soldiers were walking through a forest when they smelled something vile and disgusting. The camp was the most horrid sight that Moskin had ever seen, he said.

"The people looked like zombies," he said. "All I saw was bones."

The soldiers had never seen anything like this before, he said. They had fought in combat and seen blood, guts, and death, but this was by far worse. There were Jews crawling on the ground and some saying prayers, but most of the Jews were scared of the American soldiers when they arrived.

Immediately, the captain yelled to the soldiers "Does anyone speak German, Yiddish, or Hebrew?" and no one did, but all of the sudden Moskin said "I am a Jew," which, to this day, he does not know how he knew to say that.

"Eich bin ein Jude," Moskin said.

Moments after he said he was a Jew, an elderly man crawled to Moskin and began to kiss his boots. Moskin said he picked him up and hugged him, and saw the man had boils and lice all over his neck.

"I'd been through a lot of combat; this was different," he said. "People were packed like sardines in barracks."

The soldiers began to assist the Jews by giving them immediate medical attention and food. Moskin said he watched as a young boy repeatedly said in Hebrew "why did they want to kill me, why?" and then the boy fell over and died.

"It was like the devil himself took a vacation and came up in Gunskirchen," he said.

People like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other people that deny the Holocaust took place need to be taken seriously because what Moskin and his fellow soldiers saw at Gunskirchen was real, he said. These weren't just crimes against Jews, but against humanity.

"How can anyone believe the president of Iran," Moskin said.

Moskin attended the Nuremberg trials and watched in horror as the Nazis testified to the heinous acts they committed. If all the states of Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming were wiped out, the total still wouldn't equal the 6 million Jews that were killed, he said.

"What's important, despite all of the museums and movies, this man gives a more visual experience of the Holocaust," Michael Goldberg, of Morganville, said. "It's crucial for young kids to hear him speak."

Rob Goldfarb, of Marlboro, said it was powerful to hear firsthand about what it was like in the camps and liberating the Jews. It was important for him to have his 13-year-old daughter Hannah there to listen to this, he said.

"I thought it was cool to hear from a liberator," Hannah said. "It was really interesting to hear from someone that experienced it."