handofdave
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When does a sick joke become a holy relic?
Dec 18, 2009, 22:18
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218/ap_on_re_eu/eu_poland_auschwitz_sign_stolen;_ylt=Ap1UK2I56pRySv.cTqVpThER.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTNrMXM2N2EzBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjE4L2V1X3BvbGFuZF9hdXNjaHdpdHpfc2lnbl9zdG9sZW4EY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwMzBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDcG9sYW5kYXVzY2h3
The original sign itself was a desecration.. a brutal joke at the expense of the Nazi's captured slave labor and death camp victims.
So how does it being stolen 'desecrate' the victims of the Holocaust?
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ratcni01
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Re: When does a sick joke become a holy relic?
Dec 18, 2009, 22:53
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Hmm, I saw this on the news. Guess its a sense that something that does typify man's capacity for humanity to man, and that this happened in a racist context has now been removed. For survivors I can imagine it feeling like a little bit of deny-ers work been happening.
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drewbhoy
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Re: When does a sick joke become a holy relic?
Dec 18, 2009, 23:10
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Can't answer that question, but on the two occasions I've been to the camp I've walked underneath that sign knowing that I'd walk back out. I often wonder what I would have done knowing that, during the war, after entering I wouldn't be coming back.
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dodge one
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Re: When does a sick joke become a holy relic?
Dec 19, 2009, 00:27
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handofdave wrote:
It's once again, about perception.
Your half right and half wrong.
The original sign was not a desecration or a Brutal/Sick ''Joke". Or a "Holy Relic".
It was a humiliating insult meant to strip all who entered beneath it, of all there individuality, cultural identity, possesions, families,
and ultimately there lives.
Ultimately, the camp itself and associated trappings preserves the memory of what was possibly mankinds darkest hour.
As we go further into the future, the living memory of what happened there dies off. The sheer horror fades.
Many would just as soon forget the Holocaust ever even happened. Worse still, other's vehemently deny it happened
at all. In 20 years....no will remain alive to remember first hand. That sign stood to remind and keep the old wound's festering.
It 'WAS' a tangible voice that read " those who do remember the past..........." as much as it's original inscription.
That's what make's the vandalism/theft of this particular REMINDER so offensive.
That's my perception.
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drewbhoy
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Edited Dec 19, 2009, 00:57
Re: When does a sick joke become a holy relic?
Dec 19, 2009, 00:48
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It's a very weird feeling walking round that place, it's almost as if the silence was deafening. Hearing what the guide had to say during the second visit, two winters ago, was sickening. It was freezing and snowing, we the 'tourists' were all wrapped up in warm clothes. For the unfortunates all those years ago, they wore rags and starved on a good day. A sobering thought so places like this should be preserved but do many of humankind, especially those in power, take any notice? Somehow, sadly I think not!
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dodge one
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Re: When does a sick joke become a holy relic?
Dec 19, 2009, 00:57
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Yes, and Auschwitz was just 1 of the camps.
There were quite a few more too.
In the end though, it's really a condemnation of the entire human race.
Such events have and keep happening over and over again. Everywhere there are people.
I really do not think there is hope for us.
It's like the locusts.
A person can be a happy grasshopper soaking up the sun and enjoying life.
Get most people in a crowd though......the locust mentality takes over.
And the bricks start flying and the fires get lit.
That is us.
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drewbhoy
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Re: When does a sick joke become a holy relic?
Dec 19, 2009, 01:01
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When in Warsaw I was shown round the Jewish ghettos, it was almost like Schlinders List coming to life. Except nobody was firing a machine gun.
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dodge one
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Re: When does a sick joke become a holy relic?
Dec 19, 2009, 01:05
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I'm curious Drew, did you make a point to see those place's or did they just fall in with your route?
I'm guessing the average tourist would steer away from such grim reminders.
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drewbhoy
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Edited Dec 19, 2009, 01:16
Re: When does a sick joke become a holy relic?
Dec 19, 2009, 01:15
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Although they fell in with football trips I visited the places for my mother's aunty who was married to a Polish man Joe Budaj, a pilot who escaped to Britain and flew for the RAF. His brother was captured by the Nazis whilst helping injured Polish soldiers near Gdansk, who where then shot, Joe's brother died in Auschwitz. Sadly my mum's aunt died shortly after I returned, whilst her husband died in 1982. So you could say education also.
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dodge one
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Re: When does a sick joke become a holy relic?
Dec 19, 2009, 01:21
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I have a lot of respect for your motivations to visit those site's Drew.
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