Auschwitz MemorialDec 21, 2022

As the years pass, the last witnesses to the nightmare of Auschwitz are passing away.

What remains is the historical site itself, and the objects within it that allow historians & conservators to learn the stories of individuals.

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Listen to podcasts created by Bartosz Panek and Jarosław Kociszewski from New Eastern Europe. They invited historians @auschwitzmuseum to talk about different aspects of the history of Auschwitz: https://neweasterneurope.eu/2022/11/23/auschwitz-birkenau-death-at-a-wave-of-a-finger/

#Auschwitz #history #podcast @histodons

Auschwitz-Birkenau. Death at a wave of a finger - New Eastern Europe - A bimonthly news magazine dedicated to Central and Eastern European affairs

As the years pass, the last witnesses to the nightmare of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death factory where more than a million Jews from all over Europe were exterminated, are passing away. What remains is the camp itself, and the objects within it that allow historians and conservationists to learn the stories of individuals. Their stories not only help to understand the tragedy of the victims who were exterminated here, but add a human, personal dimension to these memories.

New Eastern Europe - A bimonthly news magazine dedicated to Central and Eastern European affairs
Show threadRayGallon
@auschwitzmuseum @histodons On my visit I had a realisation. The exhibits of masses of hair, shoes, etc. were just piles of stuff. I know they’re meant to show how the Nazis industrialized genocide but it had the opposite effect for me. They took on meaning when looked at individually: what colour shoe, man or woman, size? Most poignant were the suitcases with names & addresses on them. That’s why I appreciate your highlighting of individuals & their personal histories
Dec 23, 2022 at 4:10pmWeb
Show threadSweepers3945Dec 26, 2022
@RayGallon @auschwitzmuseum @histodons Although I think the focus upon the individual experience is an important aspect of study, I personally found the ‘piles of stuff’ absolutely key to grasping the scale of the atrocity (in a way that, even though I fully comprehended the statistics, raw numbers on a page couldn’t convey). A personal view, obviously.
Show threadRayGallonDec 26, 2022
@Sweepers3945 @auschwitzmuseum @histodons I get that, and agree that it’s intensely personal. It’s good that we each get to choose how we react and why. If the memorial weren’t there we wouldn’t have that.