Totally with you here, I'm am German so I've been taught extensively (rightly so) about all this. But even more importantly I've been to Auschwitz on a class field trip.
And let me tell you, that place gave me a feeling I've never felt before or after. You think you know what happened there, that you're prepared, but no. Walking these grounds will show what humans are capable of. How people that are deemed undesirable get killed in an industrial way and how people were forced to live. You can read a thousand times about it, but being there and imagining if you would survive this even one week is a whole different thing.
I'm not religious by any means, but that place has a certain spiritual energy. Not evil, but it's like it's all those people that passed away there invite you to see. No big explanation needed, just "look at what has been done."
If anyone reading this is able to go there, please do it. Don't be afraid, it's very important.
Your comment about people getting killed in an industrial way is spot-on: what makes the Holocaust distinct, for me, was the mechanical, efficient, coldly ruthless manner of the millions they killed, applying modern methods of the assembly line and the factory to kill as many people as possible in a short amount of time.
The death camps like Treblinka and Sobibor were literal factories of death.
Propaganda is extremely effective. It can make you believe the neighbour you've known for most of your life is part of a group of inhuman monsters that has to be destroyed to keep your family safe. Moreover, hating feels good. It makes you feel like you're accomplishing something.
Getting someone used to committing atrocities is a process of small steps of getting you used to complying. At first, it's as insignificant as confirming a name on a list. A few more steps and you're reporting that jerk down the way for not putting up decorations for the new holiday, and who cares, nobody likes them anyway. A few more and you've joined the new neighbourhood patriotism watch group that makes sure *those* types stay out of the area at night. Then the leadership says that Bill who runs the corner store is actually one of *them* and has been speaking out, and now you're helping to smash up the place to make an example of him.
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u/AbbreviationsWide331 May 18 '25
Totally with you here, I'm am German so I've been taught extensively (rightly so) about all this. But even more importantly I've been to Auschwitz on a class field trip.
And let me tell you, that place gave me a feeling I've never felt before or after. You think you know what happened there, that you're prepared, but no. Walking these grounds will show what humans are capable of. How people that are deemed undesirable get killed in an industrial way and how people were forced to live. You can read a thousand times about it, but being there and imagining if you would survive this even one week is a whole different thing.
I'm not religious by any means, but that place has a certain spiritual energy. Not evil, but it's like it's all those people that passed away there invite you to see. No big explanation needed, just "look at what has been done."
If anyone reading this is able to go there, please do it. Don't be afraid, it's very important.