Controversial? Well, maybe. Not my usual style I know.
But with discussions this week about what’s been achieved by football players visiting Auschwitz before Euro 2012, and the whole media circus around it, I feel I want to add my personal views.
I visited Auschwitz on my first visit to Poland when I had just finished University. It was part of my trip around the country to learn more about the country I’d come to know through my pen-pal. I’d been writing to Justyna since I was about 13 years old, and was fascinated that her life was so different to mine. For example, she was a member of the Scout movement, which when we first met, was an underground organisation, even though it was vibrant and a growing organisation throughout the country.
I planned a month long trip to visit Justyna and her mother in Warsaw, and other key parts of the country. It was a wonderful trip. I learnt so much from these kind and caring people who had suffered so much and had so little. They shared with strangers without thinking.
So, imagine my shock – physical and emotional – when I visited Aushwitz concentration camp. I took a minibus from Krakow where I was staying in a hostel. I don’t think there were many of us on the bus, and we were all different nationalities. We were left at the gate to our own devices, and had to be back at a certain time for the bus to take us to Birkenau, then back to Krakow.
I walked around the camp in silence. I really didn’t want to speak to anyone. It was enough for my brain to process the awfulness of what humans had done to others, without having to try and put my feelings into words. I can still see, 20 years on, the glass cases where the shoes, suitcases, and hair that were found at the site which have been displayed for us to see. These were the items that hadn’t been destroyed by the Nazis. These items belonged to only a few of those who had been brought to Auschwitz. It looked like thousands to me! It’s still difficult to comprehend the number of people who were killed at this one concentration camp.
Even now, 20 years on, I still don’t know what to make of it all. All I know is that when I left Auschwitz and Birkenau my view was that everyone in the world should see what’s left of this awful place. Maybe the world is too far reaching, as there are plenty of other places of horror around the world to remind us of what monsters humans can be, but I think you know what I mean!
It’s a shame those who visited this week were surrounded by media and not able to process their own thoughts in peace. It’s a lot to take in. But, these people are used to the media that surrounds them, so maybe they were better prepared than I was. The article by Melanie Phillips is an interesting discussion piece raising all sorts of issues about football, racism and the media. At the end of the day, all those who visited will have been affected by what they saw and experienced. Surely that’s a start?
My view that everyone should visit Auschwitz in their lifetime still stands. We’re hoping to go to Poland as a family again next year. I’m not sure the boys will be old enough (11 and 9) to fully understand, although I think it may be on our list to discuss if we take them. The issues about racism are still with us. Mass murder and ethnic cleansing still happen in parts of the world we live in. How else can we learn from our past unless we take time out?
What’s your view? Have you been? How did you react to what you saw/experienced? What age would you take your children to visit?
