On the 13th of May I left Cardiff to go on an emotional trip. I was chosen as one of two students within my college to participate in a government funded charity to highlight the atrocities of the Holocaust and the affect racism has on a whole country, a whole society, and a whole world. Needless to say, the trip was extremely thought-provoking. Before the trip I couldn't fully understand or contemplate a number such as 11 million -- it was merely a number that was significant only on the basis of fact, and not emotion -- nor could I understand the magnitude of the Holocaust itself. When I arrived in Auschwitz I still couldn't understand it, not on factual understanding but on experience. It would be impossible for my to fully grasp the emotional backlashes of such a time and experience, because I wasn't the one who experienced it in the first place. I left the camp feeling incredibly confused and extremely guilty. I had ongoing thoughts as to how I should be feeling: 'should I feel remorsful?', 'have I no compassion?', and strangly enough 'did so many truly die here?' I must admit that I even had doubts of the Holocaust itself after leaving, it was such a massive blow to me that I was finding hard to even contemplate the thought. People seem to think that genocide is something that happens in backwater countries; that it occured only in medieval times during the crusades. This happened on our very doorsteps, in the middle of Christian Europe and within only two generations of most of our lives, and now, as time grows weary so does the survivors able to tell their stories. The new generation has an obligation to keep this dying flame alive so as to prevent further atrocities for as long as people are willing to listen; because it's only the people who listen that can prevent this as much as the people who are telling the stories. These are the extreme consequences when people remain idle to prejudice and racism: Auschwitz 2008 [Please hold mouse over the photo notes to view full text.]
It is such an emotional place. Reading about what happened there is horrible enough but when you actually go there it throws up so many emotions. It is hard to believe that such a thing can happen, but when you see it, the shoes and suitcases, it's awful. I never questioned whether it happened, but was angry that he could do this and no one could help them. But in a way it is good that people can still go to Auschwitz and see what happened with the hope that they don't let this happen again and stop what is happening.
I went a few years ago and it was a very interesting place to walk around and to ponder but what upset me were the school groups of kids who didn't want to be there, talking on mobiles and joking and laughing and fucking about, that made me feel very angry... They're only kids so I suppose you can give them the benefit of the doubt but it felt very crass.. What distressed me further was the busloads of fat tourists on tour who were treating it as just another Eiffel Tower or Brandenburg Gate or another place along their holiday trip where you can say 'I went there', shoving each other out of the way in order to get the best snaps of the gas chambers.. Again, it felt horrifically disrespectful and left me walking around in tears. I do agree though, it is somewhere you should go to really make you think.. The sad thing is people think we're incapable of behaving in this manner but our government and the governments of many western countries are committing genocide still to this day.. Our numbed populace just doesn't see it that way, just as much of the populace of Germany under National Socialism didn't, to further what L.A. Matthews said..
I completely agree. On first sight of Auschwitz I it had all the elements of a theme park driven by tourism. It just shows that humans are bound by repetition, and the liklihood of genocide happening again is possible on all levels until people start respecting this site for what it truly is; there will never be peace, because it will never be fully understood or contemplated by many people. If people don't reflect and think of this event with emotion then it will just be remembered as a zeitgeist that affected nobody but the people of the time. The photos some of the people took, whereby they made obnoxious poses, made me feel there truly wasn't enough vomit in the world, and only echoed their own ignorance of this scar, amongst many more, on humanity.
those pictures were so moving. i can't imagine what it would be like to walk through that area, and what emotions that would bring up.
LA Mathews and Reverend.. I know what you mean. I've been to Dachau a few times.. an emotional experience but what sadly sticks with me is a tourist coming up to me asking if i could take a photo of them in front of a gas chamber. (i refused)
Obviously there were lots of people behaving respectfully but you don't tend to notice them as much, the arses did seem to be there in force though.. Another thing that was quite chilling is how amazingly beautiful the countryside is around there, I went in the height of summer and on the bus from Krakow it was just lush scenery the whole way, very pretty, which adds an extra air of creepyness to the whole affair. I was a bit uneasy about going at first as I get pretty emotional pretty easily but the girl I was travelling with made me see sense and I really don't regret it at all, I even feel a bit silly for not wanting to go... I can't see your photos unfortunately L.A., my computer's not high-tech enough I don't think
Some of those photos are beautiful. (second link) A survivor of Auschwitz gave a lecture in our school, there were quite a few of the type of people already described in this thread, but some people really had alot of respect. People you wouldnt have expected it from..
