To want to visit Auschwitz?

[lottieandmia]

I feel that it's something we all should do. I've been reading Primo Levi's book and I just can't imagine the level of suffering those people endured.

I mentioned it to an acquaintance and he said 'it's the sort of thing Jewish people do' and basically said I should not go, it would be depressing and there have been lots of other genocides. He has really annoyed me with these sentiments which come across as antisemitic imo.

My own feeling is very much that Muslims are 'the new Jews' where Trump is concerned.

National Socialism worked very much to associate Jewish people not just with 'racial degeneracy' but with supposed criminal activity - very much as a way of 'othering them. Many US citizens who have dual nationality and who have worked with the US Army are being regarded as 'foreign', security risks etc. This is very similar to what happened to my grandfather who risked his life for Germany in World War 1 and was then deprived of his citizenship by National Socialists.

The association between Muslims and terrorist activity/risk to peaceful human life - like that of German Jews and criminal activity - is ludicrous in the wider context of the USA, where gun crime, committed by US national is the leading cause of death. (And many US terrorists have been home grown.)

I agree Anna

I went and it stayed with me for ages. I think this is the only reasonable response to something so fucking horrific. The scale of it, the cold blooded efficiency, the dismantling of people's humanity, treating them like disposable resources..... this place and others like it must be preserved.

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it" reads the sign at the entrance to Auschwitz. I fear we're on the verge of creating something similar again... as someone said upthread, it starts off with small imbalances and discriminations, and then grows,,,

I went in October with my cousin. If you think it's something you need to see, then you will not regret going. It will stay with you though - and that's good - we must always remember what people can do to each other, especially now.

I went to Dachau years ago and that was profound for me. Same as Auchwitz.

My phone stayed in my pocket the whole time on mute in Auchwitz and Dachau. It felt like it would be massively disrespectful to snap photos in such a place, like it would trivialise the suffering. And I think when you are messing about on your phone, you are not really seeing or feeling completely. These places deserve people's respect and attention for the couple of hours you are on a tour.

Yes I would not take photos and I would turn phone off. Anything else seems disrespectful.

I've been twice and both times I was humbled. Once as a teenager and one as an adult. The way they present it is as bald fact. There is no sensationalist activity (in fairness there would be no need). There is nothing hidden. It is harrowing. Go.

Jews of any nationality across Europe were targeted after the Nazis had taken over various countries.Initially adding a Hebrew name to each Jewish person's documents was a way of setting these people apart. to begin with there were quite insidious changes to law, long before mass murder took place. People losing jobs, Kristallnacht, isolated incidents of verbal and physical abuse, rules about schooling, who could sit on park benches, use a particular beach, restrictions on who could travel,etc. Definite parallels with US policy. we all hope it does not escalate of course.

The far right has taken a worrying upward trend. My friend posted the following poem yesterday;

"Fascism: I sometimes fear...

I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.

Fascism arrives as your friend.
It will restore your honour,
make you feel proud,
protect your house,
give you a job,
clean up the neighbourhood,
remind you of how great you once were,
clear out the venal and the corrupt,
remove anything you feel is unlike you...

It doesn't walk in saying,
'Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.' "

I went last year and am glad I went. Not sure everyone 'should' go though; my experience when telling work colleagues and some friends I was going was that they were a bit taken aback why I would visit. They thought it was ghoulish and inappropriate that it should be somewhere you would want to visit, so I stopped telling people. So it's clearly not for everyone. I lost my grandfather in WW2 so it's always been a part of history I've been interested in. I found the majority of people there were respectful and although I'd read books on the camp, nothing prepares you for the overwhelming emotions you feel; especially walking down corridors with rows and rows of photos of the people who had lived and died there.

I've been.
My grandmother was 7 in 1942 and was taken from a town just outside Krakow to London by my great-grandad's cousin. The rest of the entire family were murdered. Some at Auschwitz, others in the ghettos.
I felt I needed to go in order to get some closure about why half my entire paternal side of the family were wiped out.
Honestly, it was one of the most horrendous, emotional experiences of my life, but I'm glad I went.
Has horrific as that period of history is, it's part of me, part of my family and the only reason I'm even alive is because my grandmother managed to escape the same fate as the rest of her family.

Excellent poem, Lottie

Eggy