those relict ... those shoe, I would’nt have touched them.
I don’t believe in haunted places. The Birkenau area is a place of history like so many others too. I’ve visited a few KL’s since I’m interested in the third Reich … and this is now about more than 45 years. The first camp I ever visited was in the early 70’s the KL Mauthausen, which have been unchanged then … 30 years after the camp's liberation, on 3 May 1975, the Mauthausen Museum was officially opened. Mauthausen and Gusen I camps was used as barracks for the Red Army. Between 1946 and 1947, the camps were unguarded and many furnishings and facilities of the camp were dismantled, both by the Red Army and by the local population. So, not much of the stuff which was later shown on public view was originated … at the camp (partly source : wiki)
At this time of my life I’ve first visited Gusen I and II which have been partly as ruins. I’ve beed in the large tunnels of the former underground factory too. I’ve visited Ebensee Camp … area, too. Both areas Gusen and Ebensee … were housing estates now. I personally would not like to live there. Another satellite camp was Melk/D which there was an underground plant of Steyr where they assambled the RSO (Reichsschlepper Ost)
At Mauthausen … the barracks were burnt down after the russians leave … so the barracks at Dachau KL were burnt down after using this KL after the war for displaced persons. So the wooden barracks which were on show at Mauthausen and Dachau … are originated after WW II. So many years after all this bad things have happened … who knows what all was changed in the KL’s for “information reasons” ???
When I last visited Auschwitz Birkenau it was starting to rain, just when I was in the middle of the ramp … 500 m back to the entrance und 500 m to the ruins at the end of the ramp. I only got a shirt on which was wet in 50 seconds … my camera needs two days to dry. One hour heavy rain in the open field … I did’nt want be there even at –20 degree in winter
Hi PKMann, I think you raise an interesting point regarding the post-war use of the former German concentration camps by the Soviet regimes of Eastern Europe as PoW, political detention camps or DP camps and the "reconstruction" of certain elements such as barrack blocks, etc. The gas chamber buildings at Auschwitz which were blown up by the evacuating German's were later reconstructed by the Russians in Soviet occupied Poland after the war. Often these reconstructions form the "reality of the camps" for the millions of tourist visitors that pass through them every year, and you are right, who can say with any certainty what what has been changed over the years to present the story of "the camps" to fit a particular narrative. The accuracy (or suggested lack of it) of reconstruction to the reality of the narrative of " the camps" is often used by those who would like discredit the historical validity of the entire tragic events of the period so it is an important subject, although definitely not one to debate this forum.
There was a German language research paper by Ulrike Dittrich and Sigrid Jacobeit entitled "KZ-Souvenirs Erinnerungsobjekte der Alltagskultur im Gedenken an die nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen" or roughly "The sovenir culture in commemoration of Nazi crimes" published in 2005 by Brandenburg State Agency for Civic Education which makes some thought provoking observations about "relics and souvenirs" in popular (tourist) culture and Holocaust remembrance. It can be downloaded from this link:
KZ-Souvenirs Erinnerungsobjekte der Alltagskultur im Gedenken an die nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen
This controversial subject was also explored by Polish-Dutch installation artist Agata Siwek in her extremely confrontational 2001-2002 work entitled "Original souvenirs - Auschwitz-Birkenau"
© Agata Siwek
© Museum van Bommel van Dam
Another Polish artist, Zbigniew Libera who also explored this controversial subject created a Lego concentration camp toy set in 1996. The work was exhibited at New York's Jewish Museum in the 2002 exhibition "Mirroring Evil ". Originally sold for $7,500 a set was bought by The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland for approximately $72,000 in 2012.
© Los Angeles Times
Last edited by StefanM; 12-30-2012 at 05:23 PM.
I collect, therefore I am.
Nothing in science can explain how consciousness arose from matter.
If you focus on the last two pictures and let your imagination loose you may be able to see heavy clothed german guards patroling around the camp with their dogs in hand leaving small breath-clouds in the colad winter weather. In front of the wooden wall are two prisoners carrying stones with a wagon and spotlights from the guard towers search the outside of the camp in the dark night!!! Oh my... So vivid images!!! It is so easy to think of a mini story just by looking these two pictures! Thanks Carl...
Last edited by CARL; 11-27-2015 at 10:53 PM.
We recently found items in the Kanada complex of Birkenau. The dirt is littered with lots and lots of buttons and I dare say many other items in the dirt. The first photo shows the Kanada area of the camp (the small roofed structure you see in the distance exhibits items found by visitors) and the second photo shows the items we found. These were left on top of the small glass roofed structure in the first photo so hopefully the staff would take care of them.
Thanks again hucks.
No matter how many times I see these items during my numerous visits to the site, whether around the popular locations such as here - literally under foot near to the museum display, or further off the beaten track, they have a resonance that shall echo throughout the ages. They have passed but their story will be remembered.
I dare say again that some will question how is it even possible that items can still be discovered...well, unless you see the site for yourself and your own eyes take in the utter enormity and scale of this locale, you simply do not know. NO amount of book reading and documentaries can possibly prepare you for what is actually there, still, to this day.
Carl
I would suggest the book , "Prisoner 88 The Man in Stripes" by Roy D. Tanenbaum . It is the story of a Christian Pole Sigmund Sobolewski and his time as a Fireman Auschwitz , and after the war his fight against holocaust deniers .
On a related note, a BBC report and shows just how common it is to find things in Kanada...
British school students 'stole Auschwitz artefacts'
Two British teenagers stole items including buttons and a rusted hair clipper from the Auschwitz death camp, a court in Poland has heard.
Guards at the site saw the pair pick up the items from the ground, the judge at a court in Krakow was told.
The pupils, from the independent Perse School in Cambridge, say they picked them up to show their guide.
They deny a charge of stealing artefacts of special culture importance during a school visit in June 2015.
The court in Krakow heard the items were found on the students by police.
The pupils were in an area of the Nazi death camp where the belongings of Jews who were sent to the gas chambers were kept, the court was told.
The court heard police also found a fragments of a spoon and glass on the pair, who were 17 at the time.
Initially they pleaded guilty to the charge and accepted a fine, but once back in the UK they changed their pleas.
If found guilty, they face prison sentences of up to 10 years.
The Nazis murdered 1.1 million people at Auschwitz in occupied Poland during World War Two.
The trial continues.
British school students 'stole Auschwitz artefacts' - BBC News
Sadly, this does happen...several recent public cases are fresh in my mind, including the Jewish couple who were stopped at Krakow airport prior to boarding a flight back to Israel in 2011. They were given suspended sentences. Details below:
Israeli couple held over Auschwitz artefacts theft - BBC News
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