Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses – because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened
Not Eisenhower’s words — an unsourced paraphraseDwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969 · Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force · 34th U.S. President
The sentiment is genuinely his; the sentence is not. These words appear in no letter, cable, speech or memoir, and they are absent even from Wikiquote’s Eisenhower page ↗. What he actually wrote, to General George C. Marshall on 15 April 1945, was that he had toured Ohrdruf “deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things” if anyone should later dismiss them as ‘propaganda.’
“Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses – because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened” Not a genuine Eisenhower quotation. "Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses…" has no documented source; its earliest appearances trace to the late 2000s, where it was presented as a paraphrase rather than a quotation. What Eisenhower actually wrote to Gen. George C. Marshall on 15 April 1945 was: "The things I saw beggar description… I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda.'" — via Quotle.info
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In context
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Provenance
What Eisenhower actually wrote
Popular wording
No documented source in any Eisenhower letter, speech or memoir
What he did write
Letter to Gen. George C. Marshall, 15 April 1945
Restated in
Crusade in Europe (1948), pp. 408–409
Earliest trace found by TruthOrFiction
A 2008 letter to the editor; other fact-checks place the wording in circulation earlier
The things I saw beggar description… I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’
SHAEF, 15 April 1945
Eisenhower to General George C. Marshall, 15 April 1945, three days after touring Ohrdruf. This is the documented sentence that the “get it all on record” line paraphrases — same argument, entirely different words.
12 April 1945 — Eisenhower tours Ohrdruf, the first Nazi camp liberated by U.S. forces; he later described the evidence and testimony of “starvation, cruelty and bestiality” as “so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ↗).
15 April 1945 — He writes to General Marshall: “The things I saw beggar description… I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’” (National Park Service ↗). The original letter is held at the National Archives ↗.
19 April 1945 — He cables Marshall again, asking that congressional leaders and prominent journalists be brought over to witness the camps; Secretary of War Stimson and President Truman approve the delegations the same day (USHMM ↗).
1948 — In Crusade in Europe he repeats the reasoning: he went through the camp in order to “testify at first hand about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that ‘the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda’” (Crusade in Europe, pp. 408–409, quoted at remember.org ↗).
Late 2000s — The “get it all on record” wording surfaces online. TruthOrFiction ↗ traces the earliest appearance it found to a 2008 letter to the editor, in which the writer said only that Eisenhower “said in words to this effect” before giving the line. Snopes ↗ reaches the same verdict — no reputable source authenticates the wording — and notes the paraphrase was already circulating before that letter.
The famous wording has no identifiable author, work or first-publication date, so no copyright status can honestly be asserted for it. The genuine sentence quoted above comes from Eisenhower’s 15 April 1945 letter to General Marshall, held in his Pre-Presidential Papers at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and catalogued by the National Archives ↗; his 1948 memoir Crusade in Europe remains a commercially published book. Quote either one as a short excerpt with attribution.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
How a real conviction became a fake sentence
This one travels because it deserves to be true — and because the man it is pinned on really did think it, act on it, and write it down in his own, much drier, words.
✕
The exact wordingDwight D. Eisenhower no source
No letter, cable, order, press conference or memoir has ever been produced containing this sentence. It is absent from Wikiquote’s Eisenhower page ↗ altogether, and TruthOrFiction ↗ traces the earliest appearance it could find to a 2008 letter to the editor whose author wrote only that Eisenhower “said in words to this effect” before giving the line. Snopes ↗ agrees and places the wording in circulation earlier still, so 2008 is a floor rather than an origin.
✕
The text in circulationQuote aggregators, memorial posts and museum social feeds unstable
Goodreads ↗ carries it as “down the road of history,” with no book, page or date attached, on a page that states quotes are added by users and not verified. Other copies say “down the track of history.” Genuine quotations rarely wobble on a load-bearing noun like that.
✓
The idea behind itDwight D. Eisenhower — genuinely authentic
He ordered the camps photographed and filmed and arranged for congressional leaders, journalists and German civilians to be brought to see them, telling reporters in June 1945: “I think people ought to know about such things” (National Park Service ↗). The instinct in the fake quote is entirely his.
✓His real sentence, written to General Marshall on 15 April 1945, is stronger for being sober: he made the visit “deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda’” (National Park Service ↗).
Context
Why the real sentence is the better one
On 12 April 1945 Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and George Patton walked through Ohrdruf, a Buchenwald subcamp and the first Nazi camp reached by American forces. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ↗ records his reaction: the evidence and testimony were “so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick.” Three days later he wrote to General Marshall that he had gone through the camp on purpose, so that he could testify to what he had seen if anyone ever tried to write it off as propaganda. A week after that he cabled Marshall again, asking that congressional leaders and prominent editors be flown over to look at the camps themselves.
So the instinct the viral quote celebrates — document it now, because someone will deny it later — is exactly right, and exactly Eisenhower. Only the phrasing is invented. Somewhere in the retelling his careful staff-officer prose was rewritten into something punchier and profane, and the rewrite is what ended up on quote sites, memorial posts and museum social feeds.
“The things I saw beggar description.”
Why an improved quotation is still a problem here
A fabricated line does its worst damage in precisely this subject area. The people the quote is aimed at are the people who scan any Holocaust-related claim for a crack — and an unsourceable sentence attributed to the Supreme Commander hands them one for free. Every time the paraphrase is used in place of the letter, a checkable fact is swapped for an uncheckable one.
The genuine material is not scarce. The 15 April 1945 letter survives in the National Archives ↗, the 19 April cable and the wider file are catalogued by the Eisenhower Presidential Library ↗, and Eisenhower restated the whole reasoning in Crusade in Europe in 1948. There is no need to improve on it.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1890–1969 · Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force · 34th U.S. President
Eisenhower commanded the Allied Expeditionary Force from December 1943 until July 1945, then served two terms as president from 1953 to 1961. On 12 April 1945 he walked through Ohrdruf, the first Nazi camp liberated by American troops, and immediately set about making the evidence undeniable — ordering the camps photographed and filmed and pressing Washington to send congressmen and newspaper editors to see for themselves. His own account of that decision appears in his 1945 correspondence with General Marshall and again in his 1948 memoir Crusade in Europe.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Documented source
Dwight D. Eisenhower to George C. Marshall, 15 April 1945, Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers, Pre-Presidential (DDE-EPRE), Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas; National Archives Identifier 12005711. Passage quoted in “Documenting History: Eisenhower and the Holocaust,” National Park Service. The popular “get it all on record” wording has no documented source; its earliest appearances trace to the late 2000s, where it was presented as a paraphrase rather than a quotation.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses – because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened’?” Last verified 3 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/get-it-all-on-record-now-get-the-films-get-the-witnesses/