Should Auschwitz be left to decay?

[Libby]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7827534.stm

On the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, two experts on Auschwitz argue for and against the idea that the former Nazi death camp should be allowed to crumble away.

Historian Robert Jan Van Pelt says that once the last survivor has died it should be left for nature to reclaim, and eventually forgotten.

But former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, once an inmate, says Auschwitz must be preserved to bear witness to the fate of its victims.

I have to agree with the second comment that Auschwitz should be preserved. This remains an important part of history that we should never forget.

[newyorker]

Jan 26, 2009 22:04:38 GMT Libby said:

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7827534.stm

On the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, two experts on Auschwitz argue for and against the idea that the former Nazi death camp should be allowed to crumble away.

Historian Robert Jan Van Pelt says that once the last survivor has died it should be left for nature to reclaim, and eventually forgotten.

But former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, once an inmate, says Auschwitz must be preserved to bear witness to the fate of its victims.

I have to agree with the second comment that Auschwitz should be preserved. This remains an important part of history that we should never forget.

It should be preserved just like any other structure still standing of important historical signifigance.

[avon]

i suppose it all depend's on what it mean's to you .

[Amazed]

Should Auschwitz be left to decay?

No, it shouldn't.

I have been in Auschwitz twice. Instead of Bar/Bat Mitzvah we take our children there. It's an experience they'll never forget. Nor do I.

[Libby]

Nothing personal Amazed, but i would never want to go there. I find the images and photos on the television about Auschwitz far too horrifying. It would break my heart to see it all for real. I couldn't handle it i don't think. I admire people who do make the trip, i just couldn't.

[Amazed]

Yes, it's heartbreaking. You can't go there and come back the same person you were before.

But we need to remember.

[Libby]

We do indeed Amazed - i admire you immensely, i just couldn't do it myself.

[voice]

It needs preserving as a remider of how bad things get if we give into extreme ideologies of what ever ilk

[grizzley]

Actually they should set up a road trip for anyone who wants to visit to make a multi destination vacation. Don't forget those in the former Soviet Union and in the Eastern block as well. No one should be forgotten.

[Amazed]

The picture is from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.

The shoes worn by the victims of ONE DAY at the peak time of the gas chambers. 25.000 pairs of shoes. Every pair worn by someone who lived and breathed, loved and hated, had hopes and dreams. Suddenly it was all over, forever.

The shoes are displayed in a big glass case. You can't touch them. But oh, do they touch you! Let's not forget.

[lawrence]

Tear it down. Since it seems most of your European intellectuals have announced the holocaust never occurred, what is the point ?

[voice]

I'm constantly amazed by the depth of your ignorance and stupidity L

[lawrence]

Good point. Very persuasive.

[Brittles]

My 18 yr. old was there in October, said it was shivery scarey. She thought she knew what she's expect having been to Dachau but came back quite traumatised from Auschwitz.



One of her pics, the remains of the gas chambers I think

Auschwitz is a memorial to the one and a half million people who were brutally murdered there and it - and Treblinka, Sobibor and any others that survive should be maintained for history and a reminder to future generations what 'man's inhumanity to man' (Robert Burns) can mean.

[bertrus2]

David Irving lays flowers in memory of the Auschwitz victims.

You'll have to look it us for yourself. I can't post it without a ridiculous 'ad by google'. I hope they're not going to keep on doing this.

[Beachcomber]

I'm fairly certain that Robert Burns wasn't the first to coin the phrase "'man's inhumanity to man".

However - I hope that the site of these atrocities doesn't fall into decay but i fear that in a generation or two it may become a shopping mall with the ubiquitous McDonalds in prime position.

[tarrant]

Jan 26, 2009 23:01:58 GMT lawrence said:

Tear it down. Since it seems most of your European intellectuals have announced the holocaust never occurred, what is the point ?

Bit of a stupid comment.

Most hollowcost deniers are almost certainly Americans

[Muz]

Do you think you're being clever and cutting by calling it 'Hollowcost' Tarrant? Personally, I think it makes you look pretty lame.


As for tearing it down, I don't know. It seems that even with this reminder there will be those who still poo-poo or belittle the idea of a holocaust.

See Tarrant for an example.

[tarrant]

The murders happened. The figures are debatable but the notional figure of 6 million Jews and possibly 10 million others seems to be acceptable.

The term holocaust is not.

This term has been adopted for the almost exclusive use of the Jews who were murdered.

I've just put Holocaust into Google and opened the first 8 pages listed.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust

is the term commonly used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during

www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blholocaust.htm

Listing a number of pages, the first entitled, Anne Frank.

www.holocaust-history.org/

[SS-Hauptsturmführer Bothmann] explained
that we had been dedicated
to the Kulmhof extermination camp as guards
and added that in this camp
the plague boils of humanity, the Jews,
were exterminated.

remember.org/

Featuring a number of articles relating to Jews.

www.auschwitz.dk/

The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews by the Nazis during World War 2.

www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/timeline.html

A Time line relating to Jewish victims.

www.holocaustsurvivors.org/

Relates to Jewish victims.

The suffering of these innocent people was a tragedy and one which should never be forgotten.

Sadly, it has already. The entire issue is simply a tool, used by Zionists to justify their own mass murders and oppression.

Have The jehovia's Witnesses' made a big issue?

have the Gypisies?

The Homosexuals?

The Communists?

The Mentally handicapped?

The Russians?

The Poles?

The Chechs'?

The numerous others who also suffered?

[Brittles]

Jan 27, 2009 0:23:11 GMT Beachcomber said:

I'm fairly certain that Robert Burns wasn't the first to coin the phrase "'man's inhumanity to man".

Man's inhumanity to man

This phrase, which is always used with a sense of regret, was coined by Robert Burns and used in his poem From Man was made to Mourn: A Dirge, 1785:

'Many and sharp the num'rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And Man, whose heav'n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, -
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!