David’s Medienkritik reminded me that this is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, located about 50 km from our house. I’ve mentioned before that Bergen-Belsen is perhaps the eeriest place I’ve ever been. There are no original buildings from the camp. They were all burned, and there are no replicas. There is a small museum, and various memorials, but most of the grounds consist of heather-covered mounds. Dozens of mounds. Each is a mass grave representing thousands of dead. The stillness is overwhelming.
Sixty Years After Bergen-Belsen
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I visited once when I was young and I remember hearing the sounds of nearby British artillery drills. It was eerie and moving and terrifying all at once.
I visited Dachau once. I was only 16 and didn’t fully comprehend the magnitude of the Holocaust yet. I do remember it being eerie.
From what I have been told, school children in the EAST were taken to death camps for field trips! I recall in the States going to a potato chip factory. HOW terribly cruel the world HAS been and continues…in the name of democracy and other grabbing terms! While all this is extremely painful to me, I feel gratitude that being here has opened my USA eyes to reality. Finally visited Buchenwald a year or so ago. I had been told, of course. But OMG! The day was gorgeous and the memorial defeaningly “quiet” except for the long ago groans of true agony. It is to these memorials American school children should be brought of a field trip. (AND their parents!)
Lee: School children visiting the former concentration camps is not unique to “the east”. Growing up in Bavaria, I took a field trip to Dachau as a student (now 10 yrs+ ago).
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