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Published: January 10th 2011
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Today was a day I was both looking forward to and dreading at the same time.
I've been studying and teaching about the Shoah (The Holocaust) for over 10 years now. I've been to Israel, been to the International Holocaust Museum at Yad Vashem, heard hundreds of survivor testimonies in person, but this is the epitome of it all. A concentration camp. Not any concentration camp, the biggest and most gruesome: Auschwitz-Birkenau.
1 100 000 thousand people entered the gates that read Arbeit macht frei (work makes free) between 1942 and 1944 and never came back out. Mass murder. Genocide. Extermination. Jews. Gypsies. Homosexuals. The disabled. Asians. Political prisoners. All persecuted seemingly beyond that of human capability... that is what makes this place so profound, that you can walk in and see the horse stables the prisoners were made to live in by the hundreds, see the holes in concrete they were made to excrement in with no privacy and no comfort, see the gas chambers... walk into the dark concrete box that thousands of people perished in within half an hour of them walking through those infamous gates. See the incinerators, how they functioned, how they burned people
Auschwitz Bunkers
Auschwitz-Birkenau like an incinerator would in a factory. A death factory.
It was disturbing, disgusting, hard to fathom, but at the same time a testament to the human spirit, that people did survive and that they survived to tell their stories. To repopulate (the ultimate revenge). A story that I personally believe should be told to every person living on this planet of ours, as the saying goes: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - George Santayana.
There were a lot of people who were deeply disturbed by our experiences today. This is the point, be disturbed, see it for yourself, don't deny its importance and then spread the word. This is what humans are capable of, don't let it ever happen again! Because it does repeat itself... Africa.. even Australia... we mass murdered the Aboriginal people, we had race wars, yet we still deny that they ever occurred?! We can't deny the past. One girl in our group was arguing at dinner that they shouldn't preserve so much of the camp, it's not necessary and is too disturbing. This fired me up... and I let it steam. OF COURSE IT NEEDS TO BE
Work makes free
Auschwitz-Birkenau PRESERVED! ALL OF IT!! There are already people out there that deny that it ever happened. 6 million people were murdered for no good reason at all.
Edmund Burke once said that ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’. This is the point, we all need to see and accept what mankind is capable of and find the courage within ourselves to stand up for what we believe in and say no to bullying, persecution, injustice. This is why I believe it is so important for me as a teacher to pass on my passion for peace and justice by exposing them to injustices. This is why Auschwitz is free and open to the public, to expose us to the injustices of the past. So that 'the crime that has no name' (Winston Churchill) will happen 'never again'.
It was such an important day for me. One that I will always remember, one that I will take with me, one that I will pass forward. I'm not ashamed to say that the experience was a moving and valuable experience for me. I don't feel ashamed about photographing certain parts of
Work Makes Free
Auschwitz-Birkenau the camp.. because this is the point... come and see it for yourselves, pass on your knowledge to others who aren't able to see it for themselves, so that they can't deny it. And that is exactly what I will do. This experience is an invaluable one. One that everyone should one day experience, no matter what their reactions may be.
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gypsy2010
vv
hi
live and let live...in peace