the eyes of Käthe Kollwitz
Death camp or theme park
Going to a concentration camp is a thought provoking experience. Are you going there as a tourist to gaup at the attractions, follow me this way to the gas chambers, roll up roll up look at the very place where man was at his most depraved? If not why are you going there! Everyone will have their own reason. For me it started out as conformation of history leasons learned at school, but it ended as a warning of what could happen if the lessons of the past are not heeded.
As you walk through the vast grounds of Sachsenhausen concentration camp and through the remaining buildings you are bombarded by facts and figures, there is X amount of fencing around the camp, the death strip is X meters wide, X thousand people passed through the camp and X people died in the camp. The facts and figures are endless. If you are not careful the figures are endowed with an importance that masks the human story of the camp. In this place neighbour guarded, tortured and murdered neighbour. That so much effort of thought and deed was put to evil is lamentable, when so much good could have been done if only half as much effort had been used for good, it is one of the sadest aspects of this sorry time. But the main message for me to come out of the visit was that all this happened because when a relativly small group of people said that this should happen the majority of people did/said nothing. They may not have actively joined in but they did not oppose them. The quote that constantly comes to mind as I walked through the camp was
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
by Edmund Burke
Would I have had the courage to have spoken out? Have I got the courage to speak out? Would I stand by or turn away if I had seen or see a gang of thugs beating someone because of their colour race or creed? I would hope so. If Sachsenhausen concentration camp invokes the same feelings in other people as it has in me then I think it justifies its existence. Not as a historical theme park but as a warning of what the future could hold if
Good men do nothing.
Going to a concentration camp is a thought provoking experience. Are you going there as a tourist to gaup at the attractions, follow me this way to the gas chambers, roll up roll up look at the very place where man was at his most depraved? If not why are you going there! Everyone will have their own reason. For me it started out as conformation of history leasons learned at school, but it ended as a warning of what could happen if the lessons of the past are not heeded.
As you walk through the vast grounds of Sachsenhausen concentration camp and through the remaining buildings you are bombarded by facts and figures, there is X amount of fencing around the camp, the death strip is X meters wide, X thousand people passed through the camp and X people died in the camp. The facts and figures are endless. If you are not careful the figures are endowed with an importance that masks the human story of the camp. In this place neighbour guarded, tortured and murdered neighbour. That so much effort of thought and deed was put to evil is lamentable, when so much good could have been done if only half as much effort had been used for good, it is one of the sadest aspects of this sorry time. But the main message for me to come out of the visit was that all this happened because when a relativly small group of people said that this should happen the majority of people did/said nothing. They may not have actively joined in but they did not oppose them. The quote that constantly comes to mind as I walked through the camp was
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
by Edmund Burke
Would I have had the courage to have spoken out? Have I got the courage to speak out? Would I stand by or turn away if I had seen or see a gang of thugs beating someone because of their colour race or creed? I would hope so. If Sachsenhausen concentration camp invokes the same feelings in other people as it has in me then I think it justifies its existence. Not as a historical theme park but as a warning of what the future could hold if
Good men do nothing.