Mastodawn

WhiteLadySpeaksSpanish Dec 22, 2022

@auschwitzmuseum leave Twitter it’s a septic tank of antisemitism and hate.

Ekinnajay 🇧🇻Dec 22, 2022

@rebeccabguinn @auschwitzmuseum
I did. With the first Nazi symbols posted by Elon himself, I was gone that same day. It's a business & I don't support Nazi businesses in any form. And I'm ticked of because the bird site shared so much helpful info. Thankful that the same info can be found here. Not as plentiful as people are still hanging around there, but enough. Thank you for making your way here.

Marie 🇸🇪Dec 22, 2022

@auschwitzmuseum never has this message been needed more than in the period we live in now where hate, threats & racism flow. Where no one can feel sure of the facts any more & where propaganda takes an increasingly large place. Where hostility, prejudice & discrimination are increasingly accepted as part of society.

Alessio Vallerga 🎤📰📢 🏉Dec 22, 2022

@auschwitzmuseum perché angosciarsi oggi per qualcosa avvenuto 80 anni fa? Perché la bassezza a cui è arrivato l'uomo è limite da non oltrepassare più e perché "quei 6 milioni di morti" dei campi di sterminio erano mamme, nonni, bimbi, insegnanti, carpentieri, padri. Non è stato risparmiato nessuno ma ogni nessuno era qualcuno, che aveva una faccia, una vita, speranze e aspettative. Dieci secondi di angoscia quotidiana sono la candela che resta sempre accesa.

aaron Dec 22, 2022

@auschwitzmuseum I visited the camps a decade or so ago and it was one of the most profound experiences in my life.

Auschwitz Memorial Dec 22, 2022

@aaron What do you remember as the most meaningful part of the visit?

schufrau Dec 22, 2022

@auschwitzmuseum

I visited the camp 5 or 6 years ago.
Vorher hatte ich schon Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, Sachsenhausen und Bergen-Belsen besucht.
Das beeindruckendste und verstörendste in Auschwitz war für mich die Größe, die Ausdehnung des Geländes. Vom Wachturm im Eingangstor aus ist kein Ende zu sehen.
Endlos bestürzend, traurig ist die Geschichte des Vernichtungslagers.
#neveragain
#fcknzs
#niewieder

aaron Dec 22, 2022

@auschwitzmuseum I walked in thinking I knew what I was going to experience. I was wrong. We as humans are incapable of understanding things beyond a certain scale. Seeing the piles of murdered people’s personal belongings. Standing on the train tracks where people where herded in like cattle. Seeing the ruins of buildings destroyed to hide atrocities. I was shaken to my core.

ResniB Dec 22, 2022

@auschwitzmuseum @aaron it was winter but the sense of cold. Freezing cold around my soul… like tousends dead souls were still there, reminding us…

abolitionbb Dec 22, 2022

@auschwitzmuseum @aaron
I went in 2017. So many things stood out, seared into my memory. When I watch things about it now there’s an entirely different sense of scale. Hearing numbers can be hard to process. Seeing the physical space, and knowing (somewhat) how crowded it was is different. The piles of gas canisters haunt me, as do the heaps of personal belongings. What was maybe most strange to me tho, or jarring I suppose, was that the area surrounding it was beautiful. I was there around dusk and the trees in the distance were so pretty, and that felt so wrong. I was surrounded by the remnants of one of the most depraved sites in human history, and there was still beauty in nature. To go from the basement in Auschwitz where unspeakable things happened, where I was afraid to be even when I knew I was perfectly safe, to seeing the sun starting to set at Birkenau just an hour or so later left me with a feeling I don’t know I’ll ever actually find words for. It somehow reminded me of the resistance and resilience of the people who ended up there. There were obviously more horrifying things, moments that made my stomach churn, but that feeling of watching the sunset has stuck with me in an uncanny way.

Didactylos Dec 22, 2022

@aaron @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum it is a ‘must visit’ location. We were there one February when even in full winter clothes it was freezing for us. In my mind I had always imagined it out in a forest tucked away from everywhere - the surprise and incongruity of its location. I had great difficulty in even speaking for most of the rest of the day

Tabs Dec 22, 2022

@abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron this is so beautifully written. Thank you for sharing this. 🫶

Madeleine Masterson Dec 22, 2022

@abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron thank you for sharing this - I know what you mean too. The only camp I have visited was in Vught the Netherlands- in my ignorance up til then did not know the Nazis put one there - prisoners were taken from there to the ones we are more likely to have heard of. But of course the atrocities and death (so many children)were all there. And as I looked at the trees & sky birdsong knew they saw & heard that too 💕🕊⭐️🌸

Peter Brown Dec 22, 2022

@madeleinemasterson @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron when I was 19, I visited a WWII graveyard in Etretat on the French coast.

I didn’t know it existed so nothing had prepared me for the enormity of the cemetery. One of many on that coastline, there are thousands of graves, all containing young men of my own age and it left a massive impression.

Yes, there is no substitute for visiting this type of site, as no third-party account or even a photograph comes close.

panisuze Dec 22, 2022

@abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron so much time has passed yet the sense of death weighs heavily on the visitor. Why do we go there? To remember; to pay respects to those who suffered and died; to be reminded of what can happen if we allow injustices to be ignored so the bullies become empowered. Ne jamais plus.

Auschwitz Memorial Dec 22, 2022

@panisuze @abolitionbb @aaron
You raise a very important point here. No matter what is the personal reason for a visit at the Memorial, it is important to think "why do we go there?". Any kind of preparation helps to find a value and meaning.

David Palk#RejoinEU 💖🇪🇺🕊🌈Dec 22, 2022

@panisuze Ne jamais plus! #Solidarity #Love #AntiFa

@abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron

Jedigal007 Dec 22, 2022

Thank you for visiting and honoring our people, who suffered so.

Runsforcoffee Dec 22, 2022

@abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron

Stillness, yes. I lost family there during ww2 and went with late father and my family. It was incredibly moving ,more so for my Dad, but I was taken aback and saddened by the selfie takers who were everywhere that day.

@abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron I went as a teenager, as most young people in southern Poland, on a school trip. I remember some of my schoolmates acting silly, completely inappropriate. I was appalled then. Now I think it was a coping mechanism. How can a 13-year old truly comprehend it all without being changed forever? I was always a quiet introvert and it hit me hard. The worst were the piles of glasses, shoes, suitcases. And hair.

@abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron I remember promising to myself that I'd never go back, it was just too traumatic - unless one day with my children, because everyone should see it once. 20 years later, I've decided against having children, but I might still go. Looking at the horribleness all around, I think we all might need a reminder.

Krazov Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron, I was 15 when they took us, but the teacher said that one inappropriate joke and there would be severe consequences, and somehow she said it the way that everyone took her seriously that one time, and so we have behaved so calm, etc., that later she said she was surprised with "the lack of any emotional reaction to what we saw."

Paweł Sawicki Dec 22, 2022

@Krazov @amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron From my own experience as a guide I know that emotional reactions can have many different forms and come at different points. Yet, it is essential no to enforce it, trigger it. It's relatively easy at such a tragic surroundings, but it could be a traumatizing factor. One needs to be very sensitive and that is why the Museum does not have 'audio' tours, only educators-guides.

@pawelsawicki @Krazov @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron yes, I remember we had a guide. It's been 20 years so I honestly don't remember anything about them, though. But I agree, everyone processes things differently. There's a level of emotional maturity that's required to get through it, though. I think 13 is too young.

Paweł Sawicki Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @Krazov @auschwitzmuseum @aaron Today things are a bit different as there is a special guided tour prepared for younger teenagers that avoid some most difficult aspects. Yet, the recommendation is not below 14 years of age.

@pawelsawicki @abolitionbb @Krazov @auschwitzmuseum @aaron that's a good recommendation. I think it may be different when you have a younger child woth famiy who helps set up the tone and process the hard emotions versus a group of school kids with a couple teachers that can't give each child the same amount of attention and support. 15 would be the youngest I'd consider bringing a relative of mine, though.

@Krazov @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron good teacher. Ours couldn't reign the kids in. I remember them standing in front of the incineration chambers and laughing out loud...

Krazov Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron, she decided to overdo this, though, hence, she was surprised later. There was one guy on the bus who would talk terrible stuff on the bus, but he was from another group.

@Krazov @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron I think in this case maybe overdoing is better than the hapless incompetence of our teacher...

Krazov Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron, there's no kill like overkill.

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron
I have never been there. But have always studied that time with a fascination because of the truly monumental nature of it all. Those piles of items kill me when I see them. And, I agree about kids acting weird as a coping mechanism. To witness even the artifacts of that level of indescribable evil and horror should straing any normal mind beyond comfort.

@Bullix @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron yeah... I can assure you that seeing it in reality, through just a thin layer of glass between you and the only thing that were left frok countless victims, kills you even more than seeing them on photos. I still shiver at the memory and it's been 20 years.

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron
I have no doubt. As bad as it sounds, I am glad they preserved the camp exactly as it was. And I'm glad that Eisenhower forced Germans to view the camps in his area of command. And that he had the foresight to have his soldiers visit and every press camera they could get.

He was too right when he said people would otherwise forget it.

Auschwitz Memorial Dec 22, 2022

@Bullix @amythewicked @abolitionbb @aaron Preservation of all authentic #remains of the German Nazi camp - starting from buildings and ruins, ending at the smallest personal items - is one of the most important challenges at the
@auschwitzmuseum.

Look at "Preserve #authenticity" booklet in which we talk about conservation of historical objects and #documents in our Laboratories.

PDF: https://auschwitz.org/gfx/auschwitz/userfiles/auschwitz/zachowac_autentyzm_pdf/preserve_authenticity.pdf

#conservation #preservation #museums @museum #Auschwitz #history

@auschwitzmuseum
Thank you! For sharing this, and for all of your work. Heroic work.

@Bullix @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron I was unaware of that bit of information, thanks. I know that the Soviets destroyed and desecrated a lot of the buildings/things right after the liberation of the camp. Whatever you want to say about the polish communist regime of the 40s, at least they preserved what they did.

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron

I had forgotten the Soviet treatment of the camp. After all the evil they committed in letting the Warsaw Uprising die before liberating Warsaw, and the Katyn Massacre, and their secret collaboration with the Nazi conquest of the area that became Auschwitz/Birkenau, it's still hard to fathom what they gained from not preserving it. Glad Poles did!

@Bullix @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron and what we're seeing in places in Ukraine liberated from the Russians, their attitude towards desecrating victims hasn't changed. Woth the added bonus that now it's their victims...

@amythewicked

I had a great meme that showed a picture of Katyn from 1941 next to a picture from a mass grave in 2022 Ukraine. Russians haven't changed anything other than their system by which they let sociopaths corrupt their central government.

@Bullix bullseye.

(((JaneinNJ)))Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron I was fortunate to be there in 2019, as part of a trip led by #DeborahLipstadt. I had to leave the museum when I got to the vitrine of personal items like combs, lipstick, etc. It was too much for me to handle, especially after finding names of previously unknown relatives in the massive list that is on display.

@JaneinNJ @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron I'm so sorry. I don't have any relatives (at least none we know of) who perished in a death camp. Though we do have a family story about a great-uncle who was shot by the SS for hiding a Jewish family. Might not be true, though, there's no evidence beyond the word of mouth. My grandma doesn't talk about these times.

Steve Yelvington Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron

Years ago I visited a traveling Holocaust exhibit in London. After seeing all the horrors, and there were many, a simple glass case full of shoes is what did me in.

Aemstuz Dec 22, 2022

@steve @amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron Similarly here. When seeing the shoes of victims in Auschwitz Museum I could imagine the people who died there and their number (and it’s just a small part of them whose shoes were exhibited there) It told much more than just words and number of victims in a history textbook.

@aemstuz @steve @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron yes. That's why what the Museum is doing on social media is so important. Most people won't have the possibility to see it. But sharing pictures of the people who perished, their names and ages... that humanizes the enormity of the numbers.

@amythewicked @aemstuz @steve @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron

Agreed, And, for me, everytime we speak their names and show their faces...we spit in the face of the industrial death machine that intended for them to disappear into the mists of time unremembered. I try to view and read each I see. Because its all I can do. :(

@Bullix @aemstuz @steve @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron same. Reading about them & keeping them in my thoughts for a little while... it's like my own tiny form of honoring them.

@amythewicked Same, my only available act of passive, retroactive defiance of a dead madman.

Kevin Karhan

Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked @aemstuz @steve @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron Eeyupp...

#NeverForget is the first step to enshure that it happens #NeverAgain!

The Haunted Librarian Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked @aemstuz @steve @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron We can never forget!

@steve @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron I remember a lot of things that were horrifying and traumatizing - the barracks in Birkenau, the death wall in Auschwitz, the gas chambers, the incineration chambers... but the displays brought it all to life harder than anything else.

Professor Toots Dec 23, 2022

@steve @amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron Same, at the museum in Washington DC. Even the memory has me tearing up.

Jona 🦜Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked
Me hit really hard realizing I walked on small bone fractures which were in the ground all over in the backside.
😢
@abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron

@Jona @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron I don't remember that, or maybe I didn't realise. Sometimes ignorance is a mercy...

Reynardine Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked I've seen pictures of piles of baby shoes. I don't think I 'd have taken seeing them in person very well.

@Reymohamme5 I don't remember a separate display case just for baby shoes, just piles and piles of shoes of various sizes... might be my memory lacking, it's been 20 years.

Wolfy5657 Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron when I was 18 I visited buchenwald as well as Auschwitz..I don’t ever remember being so depressed as well as saddened by how bad we can treat each other..an ideology that allowed normal people to commit such evil..I still can’t comprehend it..

@wolfy56 @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron yes. The scary part is that it didn't happen all of a sudden. It was gradual. It was hate and fear festering for many years. And looking around today... it seems like there's the same fear and hate all around. It terrifies me.

Wolfy5657 Dec 22, 2022

@amythewicked @abolitionbb @auschwitzmuseum @aaron there are many similarities in my country as compared to 1933 Germany..