Posted on 01/26/2009 11:35:43 AM PST by nickcarraway
On the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, two experts on Auschwitz argue for and against the idea that the former Nazi death camp should be allowed to crumble away.
Historian Robert Jan Van Pelt says that once the last survivor has died it should be left for nature to reclaim, and eventually forgotten.
But former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, once an inmate, says Auschwitz must be preserved to bear witness to the fate of its victims.
ROBERT JAN VAN PELT, HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR
Many Auschwitz survivors have told me that a visit to the camp can teach little to those who were not imprisoned there. Their view is best summarised in the text of Alain Resnais' celebrated movie Night and Fog (1955), written by the camp survivor Jean Cayrol. As the camera pans across the empty barracks, the narrator warns the viewer that these remains do not reveal the wartime reality of "endless, uninterrupted fear". The barracks offer no more than "the shell, the shadow".
Should the world marshal enormous resources to preserve empty shells and faint shadows?
Certainly, as long as there are survivors who desire to return to the place of their suffering, it is appropriate that whatever remains of the camps is preserved.
Many of the same survivors who have told me that I can derive little knowledge from a visit to the camp acknowledge that it was good for them to return to the place, anchoring an all-encompassing nightmare back to a particular place.
The world owes it to them not to close such an opportunity for a return. As long as one survivor is still alive, the remains of the camp should remain available.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Apparently, physical existence and living (still) memory of the horrors committed there are lost on humanity - well, at least on the new ‘progressives’ in control of this country. Their manner, speech and newly formed plans are inching towards the very circumstances and events that perpertrated the environment for these horrors to occur all those decades ago.
???
??? What? Elie Wiesel is the big Holocaust nobel prize curator or something. He is slobbering over someone who has Hamas people working for him. Hamas wants to kill Jews and Israelis. 78% of (liberal) American Jews voted for someone who has close ties to Hamas. Do you need more?
See another story here about Jews in Sweden being pelted with eggs and tear gas by Muslims.
Great idea - if approached, I bet the childish madman Ahmadinajhad, in a fit of pique, would fund preservation.
Someone needs to ask Iran, regardless. It would make a point if nothing else.
The Iranians and other Moooslims wouldn’t mind, since they know it’s a fabrication, in the first place...
Something as historically significant as this should be preserved for future generations to see, first hand and up close, what power in the hands of evil men can do.
The building that is blown-up is the crematoria at Birkenau. The case chamber with the smoke stack is at Auschwitz adjacent to where “Boss” (I believe)was hung. The crematorium is also ajacent to the living quarters of the camp commander. The picture of the wall is next to the building in Auscwitz that was used for summary executions.
When I was there one could feel the evil in the place.
But - it has nothing to do with preserving the death camps for future generations to see what a real madman is capable of.
What would they do, put houses there?
I cannot imagine how haunted that place must be.
Someone needs to ask Iran, regardless. It would make a point if nothing else.
Thanks. Who's gonna do it? Hillary? Fat chance (pun intended).
I wish I could afford to go.
While it’s vital we look ahead, it is also important we remember the past, and keeping places like this around will give a physical presence to the horrific evil of that time.
case = gas chamber
I suggest, if you ever get the chance, to visit one of those places.
Then not only will you be able to imagine it. YOU WILL KNOW.
I meant: ‘What Does That Rant Have To Do With The Topic Of This Thread’?
It’s ghastly, but it is a monument to the awful things people - and governments in particular - can do.
National Socialist Obama needs it to remain standing. It’s his model for the future of his political enemies.
hell, they’ll build a mosque on the site and claim mohammed slept there and it is the ___th holiest site in all of Islam
It should be preserved as a warning to future generations.
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