German denounces citizenship after visiting Stutthof

Jerusalem Post ^ | Apr. 20, 2004 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[yonif]

Police have deported a Berlin man who threw away his passport after visiting a concentration camp memorial in Poland, saying he was so distraught by the Nazi atrocities that he could no longer live in Germany or even speak his native language, an official said Tuesday.

Gdansk police spokesman Adam Atlinski said Ludwig Kabanow, 24, was stoic Monday when police explained to him he could have remained legally in Poland with proper documentation, but had to be deported because he had thrown away his papers.

"He was very silent, barely spoke, made no facial expressions," Atlinski said. "When he learned he would have to be deported to Germany, he just nodded."

Kabanow arrived April 14 with a group of friends for a three-day sightseeing tour of the Baltic port city of Gdansk, which included a visit to the former Nazi concentration camp of Stutthof.

After seeing the camp, however, Kabanow threw away his documents, stopped speaking German and refused to return to Germany with his friends.

When the group left, he remained behind in the hotel where they had been staying, communicating in English, Atlinski said.

Police were called after he threatened suicide, Atlinski said.

"He explained he threw out the passport because he does not want to be a German any longer after what he saw in Stutthof," Atlinski said.

The Nazis built Stutthof in 1939, the first concentration camp of many established outside Germany. Some 100,000 people from 25 different nations were imprisoned there until 1945, and about 65,000 prisoners were either killed, or died of disease or starvation.

[WOSG]

After all these years of so many self-hating Jews ready to sell Israel out to Arafat, about time a self-hating German showed up to even the score!

[Robert Teesdale]

My stepmother watched the Gestapo come and take her older brother, who was in the Resistance, away from the family back garden. He was shot at Stutthof. She and my father live next door, their apartment balcony looking over the garden.

On the wall of the building, outside, is a plaque that reads:

ICI DEMEURAIT
ROLAND SEYDOUX
PATRIOTE
FUSILLE AU CAMPE DE STRUTHOF
BAS-RHIN LE 1 SEPTEMBRE 1944
1917-1944

It is a sobering thing to see. Yet in remembrance of him, there is no better or more honorable title for a man who died for his nation and the freedom of his people:

Patriot.

His memorial is about halfway down the linked page.

[pabianice]

How the f*** could anyone in Germany in 2004 not know about the Holocaust??

[kaiser80]

don't you know that the Jews were sent to Madagaskar?

[LexBaird]

Headline should be "Renounces", not "Denounces". He denounced Germany, then renounced his citizenship.

[ChewedGum]

It's easy. Just erase it from the history books and let a generation or two slip by.

Gum

[DustyMoment]

Sounds to me like Kerry-lite!! I lived in Germany and didn't have to go to Poland to see a concentration camp. I just went to Dachau. he could have gone to any of the following to discover the same thing in Germany:

Bergen-Belsen
Börgermoor
Buchenwald
Dachau
Dieburg
Esterwegen
Flossenburg
Gundelsheim
Neuengamme
Papenburg
Ravensbruck
Sachsenhausen
Sachsenburg

This guy sounds as though he has been in denial about the camps (like so many Germans) until the right moment came along for a dramatic photo opp.

I smell a looming political career in the works.

[Michael81Dus]

I´m not sure if he didn´t know about the Holocaust. There is sufficient information about the atrocities in school, even if he was in the lowest school form. I just think that his imagination was not good enough to realize how and what happened, and when he saw the real places of the crimes, he got aware of them and saw the people dying.

[DustyMoment]

I disagree. Since the 80s, if not earlier, there has been a concerted effort by some in Germany to deny that the holocaust ever occurred. Speaking for myself, I stand by my original contention that he saw a photo opp and a chance to dramatically avoid going home. Something about the story stinks, anyway; this guy is grandstanding. It isn't a big deal to jump on the train in Der Fatherland and visit one of those former concentration camp sites. They are mostly still standing as mute testimony of the truth of the holocaust.