Going thorough this main entrance I was literally shivering thinking of how many people had entered and never came out again.
The ghastly message at the gate can be translated roughtly as “Everybody gets what he deserves”.
The crematorium (above)...
The pathology lab (above)...
The worst were the photos, the information, the thousands and thousand of records kept by the Nazis about their prisoners. Never would have believed a place could make me feel so miserable. But it did. It was horrible to be here in this camp where the Nazis killed many people. May we never forget...
I leave you with the words of the legendary CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow who described the scene at Buchenwald when he entered the camp after the liberation:
"I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it I have no words. If I've offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I'm not in the least sorry."
You can read the transcript of Murrow’s report here: http://www.otr.com/murrow_buchenwald.shtml
Or listen to his original radio report here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wYVn0hzcSs0
20 comments:
I am here to commemorate the HMD to not forget e to make know the racism and the discriminations against a people without reasons. We are obliged to informer our sons about our point of view in the hestory.
Hallo, dear antonella, Enzo by rome.
Yes, Enzo, thanks for stopping by. We should remember the mistakes in history and learn not to repet them. Will we ever? Ciao. A.
I am very pleased to read your account, Antonella. There aren't enough blogs on the internet to relay this message. Never again. Yet, the Vatican seeks to exonerate those who deny that this ever took place. An appalling way to mark the 64th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Thanks, Guido. I'm appalled as well for the Vatican decision. Nobody can deny the Holocaust. Apart from all the witnesses of the Nazi horrors, the same Nazis left such a big trail of records and proof that it is totally absurd to deny it. My mum's older brother spent two years in one of those camps. He's now 85 and still has nightmares. He was a young boy, a partisan informer and was betrayed to the Fascists by a friend...Nobody can deny all this. We MUST NOT forget.
We mustn't forget but there must be forgiveness to enable the children to grow up without hate. Always having to pay back causes ongoing problems.
Yes, Mo, I agree with you, forgive and forget are two different concepts. We need to forgive to be able to build bridges among us all, but it's important to learn our lessons for the past to avoid that those atrocities happen again. In fact genocides have happened again. For example in Cambodia 1975-1979, Bosnia 1992, Rwanda 1994, etc etc until the Palestinian situation today...
I just can`t see how any rightminded person can deny the Holocaust Antonella, it must always be remembered, always. My SIL and a friend visited Auschwitz a couple of years ago and she told me that what she felt there was indescribable. I can only imagine...
Love Sandra xxxx
A very timely post Antonella, and the photos really bring it home. The one of the pathology lab is just horrific. What horrors has that room seen?
Thank you for your thought provoking posts.
Thank you for posting this, Antonella. I got cold chills just looking at the pictures.
I have visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. twice, and I believe it should be a required visit for every American. As you wrote, the paper trail left is abundant, and the pictures are numerous. To deny the Holocaust is delusional, dangerous, and evil.
All my best,
Beth
@Sandra: It was rather chilling, Sandra, like walking through a ghost town. I cannot really explian, it was like breathing death! I will never forget the experience.
@notSupermum:I found the lab horrific too, but the creamatorium and the chimneys were the worst. I feel I've been a bit heavy in this post but I think I needed to remember as well.
@Beth: Thanks to you , Beth, for reading my post. Evil people deny the evidence, they deny evil itself. But there always be some who are evil.
Thankyou for sharing your pictures and feelings of this place Antonella,people must never be allowed to forget what happened there ..love Jan xx
You have courage visiting this place Antonella, I'm not sure I'd be strong enough. But I believe we have a duty to face the truth however hard it is.
I remember years ago when it was reported the the Hlocaust wasn't being taught in German schools!!! we must never forget what happened to tose people wherever they were from, just looking at the pictures gave me the creeps, and to think this is recent history, how people were treated and the dispicable way they los ttheir lives.
Excellent posts thank you
Yasmin
xx
Thank you for this reminder, Antonella. I hope for the day that all people will see other people as just that — people. Nothing more, nothing less, no matter their race, gender, or beliefs. Until that happens, we need to be reminded as often as possible.
I don't know if I can ever visit a place like that. Just hearing stories from the survivors of the atrocities committed during WWII here in Manila pains my heart so much. I don't think I can take being in a place where so many people were put to death.
Thank you for this post and the photos. The flowers beside the crematoria surely create a visual of good and evil. The only people who can deny or try to deny are those who are capable of evil themselves.
Buono lavoro, amica mia!
Grazie
Thank you for the reminder. I wish we really could stop letting these same atrocities happen. When you look at Darfur and Palestine it just goes to show that we never learn and no one really remembers. It's just so sad that so many have to suffer.
It was truly a hideous time in history and one that we should never ever forget. I am disgusted at that Bishop who is trying to deny the whole thing. My brother did visit Auschwitz and said the same thing, you could still feel the death and suffering. Thank you for posting this.
@Jan: Thanks for your comment. I think forgetting would be itself a crime.
@Ruby: At the time of my visit Germany was still divided and we were in the German Democratic Republic where both their own citizens and visitors from Eastern Europe with very few from the West were more or less “faced” with the horrors of the “fascist past”. So it wasn’t totally my free choice, but although it was a shocking experience, now I’m glad that I was there.
@Yasmin: As far as I know World War II, Hitler's dictatorship and the horrors of the Holocaust have been part of the German school curriculum since 1960s and onwards. A visit to a Holocaust memorial or a Holocaust museum at the site of a former concentration camp is also a standard feature of school excursions. In fact, the largest category of visitors at former concentration camps is often German high-school students led by their teachers.
@Hilda: I read about the Manila massacre, Hilda, it was one the worst massive war crime committed by the Japanese Imperial Army at the end of WWII. Evil resides everywhere, it just needs a little sparkle to come out and cause horror and destruction.
@Laura: Thanks for visiting, Laura. You’re totally right, only evil people can deny that evil exists. Just look around, it’s still here!
@David Santos: Thanks for visiting.
@YM: Yes, there is still too much evil, hate, horror around. That’s why we should never forget, to try to make better what’s around us still now. Because I think we can. But maybe I’m just a dreamer…
@Jeannette: My uncle was in a concentration camp. He told us few things about it because he doesn’t want to talk about it. What he witnessed there will be buried with him.
I visited Auschwitz several years ago and it is a chilling haunting experience. AS project has started up recently in the UK to take school children over to concentration camps and to hold discussions around the experience. I'm not sure how many children are involved but it seems to be having quite an impact
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