#ausschwitz

There’s a hauntingly silence as I walk through concentration camp Birkenau. It’s freezing cold at minus 7 degrees. And we’re walking on dead grounds. We’re walking on a mass graveyard. I can’t even imagine the masses of people, who were sentenced to death here.

And as I look around I see the society we live in. There are people talking private things while the guide is telling us about the horrors that took place here, as if they can’t even wait for a few hours. Others are taking pictures some even selfies as if this was some kind of attraction in Disney World. The few that care are trying to listen to the guide. The few that are ready to learn about history so we won’t make the same horrible mistakes again. Very few.

While others turn their attention away I listen to the guide tell us more about the history of our continent and that dark time. I feel empty unable to imagine the horrors that took place where I stand, even though I’ve heard and read so much about them. I’ve been lucky, I grew up in a protected home and as a race that is seldom persecuted. I’m a white girl in a western world.

However I try to understand and fathom what happened here. I try my best to remind myself that I’m literally walking on the remnants of the people who died here, as their ashes were disseminated carelessly on the grounds. There are little white splinters lying on the land in some parts where the Sonderkommando had shattered the remaining bones of the corpses and thrown them into small ponds.

I’m freezing in my warm coat and three layers I’m wearing underneath. I can’t imagine how the people must have felt in their thin clothes and wooden shoes, as they walked the trail to their shacks or to the dreaded gas chamber.

The horrible things the Nazi’s have done shouldn’t be forgotten, it’s history and we need to learn from it, so we know better next time something like this happens. I recommend each of you to go visit Ausschwitz and Birkenau. And when you’re there please, put your cameras away and turn your phones off, it’s not about that here. Show some respect to the dead. Listen closely and take in as much as you can. Learn from past mistakes. Be proud and courageous, stand up against injustice and cruelty

http://index.hu/kulfold/2016/11/28/bortonbe_kell_mennie_a_95_eves_auschwitzi_konyvelonek/

A fenti cikk indított el bennem egy eszmefuttatást arról, hogy van-e értelme elítélni egy 95 éves embert a 70 évvel korábban elkövetett bűneiért, amikor túl sok ideje már úgysincs hátra?

A szóban forgó férfi az ausschwitzi koncentrációs táborban volt lágerőr, feladata a behozott zsidók ruháinak és értékeinek őrzése. Nem vállalt jelentős részt a kivégzésekben, sem az emberkísérletekben, egy parancsot teljesítő tisztként csupán felügyelnie kellett. Az igencsak hosszú ideig elhúzódó vizsgálati eljárások során azonban 4 év börtönre ítélték bűnrészességért, ami az ő korában gyakorlatilag életfogytiglant jelent. Teljesen jogos az, hogy korra való tekintet nélkül, az elkövetett bűnökért meg kell kapni a megfelelő jogi következményt. De gondoldjuk át, milyen lehetőségei is voltak a férfinak.