[citation needed] In January 1944, Lauterbach was part of the delegation of Western correspondents who visited the graves in Katyn forest at the invitation of the Soviets.
After visiting the Majdanek camp near Lublin in 1944, Lauterbach described how the impact of the "full emotional shock came at a giant warehouse chock-full of people's shoes, more than 800,000 of all sizes, shapes, colors, and styles....
I looked at them and saw their owners: skinny kids in soft, white, worn slippers; thin ladies in black highlaced shoes; sturdy soldiers in brown military shoes..."[4] Lauterbach, then "associate editor of LIFE," wrote a January 1, 1945, Life magazine article marking Stalin's birthday, entitled "Stalin at 65.
"[5] Lauterbach wrote that Stalin was driven to "push through collectivization of farms at any cost, to build up the morale, to promote the Stakhanovite speed-up movement, to make peace with Hitler for enough time to plan and build for the war he knew was coming...." He quotes Stalin: "Those who think I would ever embark on the adventurous path of conquest blatantly underestimate my sense of realities."
He closes by saying that Stalin had made his greatest contribution "to the workers of the world by establishing socialism in one country, by raising the economic level of the masses in Russia to new highs by setting up the Soviet Union as the shining example".