by Laura Lai/Comment
This
museum is also called a ‘learning center’ and, although well documented myself,
I still learned some new things, too. For example, I learned the name of Ernst
Hiemer (1900-1974) that I have never encountered so far in any of my readings
or documentaries. I do not think it skipped me, because I would have definitely
remembered.
The adults were massively
manipulated by the Fuehrer. I know manipulation is a powerful weapon in itself.
I know that the Fuerher is an example in this sense. But I doubt that he was
mastering such a technique that could change good neighbors today, into enemies
the next morning. Indeed, in other documentaries there are testimonials of
survivors saying that their long good neighbors became the next day enemies. I
strongly doubt that manipulation technique can twists minds from one day to
another.
Therefore, I tend to believe that the Fuehrer was the
embodiment of something far more powerful and beyond our understanding than a learned
by the book manipulation technique. It must have been more difficult for the
Fuerher to bring on his side the children, because they are spiritually pure.
And he needed a team and a strategy. Ernst Hiemer was part of the larger nazi
team and part of the strategy, as an anti-Jewish children’s book writer. In
1938, he wrote a collection of seventeen children’s stories (‘Der Giftpilz’/
‘The Poisonous Mushroom’) and in 1940 he published another collection
associating the Jews with different types of animals (probably without even
realizing that in this context the animals were more lovely than what the
humans were doing!). In 1942 he made all the effort to collect popular
expressions about the Jews in ‘Der Jude im Sprichtwort der Voelker’.
I have also learned about the
different badges the victims were wearing. We are familiar with the yellow
ones, for Jews, in general. But I learned that there were also yellow with
white, which meant ‘race violator’, there were also yellow with red, which
meant ‘Jewish political prisoner’, there were badges for German political
prisoners, homosexuals, etc.
I finally discovered a complete map
of all tens of thousands work camps, sub-camps, slave camps and since 1942 the six death camps that would
spare the nazi to waste bullets on murdering prisoners and pass to gas for mass
murder. It is the first time I see on the map how far the following death camps
were from each other: Chelmo, Majdanek, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka and
Auschwitz. The hosts of this virtual tour museum considered important for the
visitors to know that some prisoners fought for their freedom. It is a question
I have never asked myself. I know that humanly speaking is very hard, if not
impossible, to still have strength to fight back when one is dehumanized to
such an extent, relocating in an strange and overcrowded ghetto or camp with
only a suitcase or nothing, knowing nothing of the loved ones, wearing always
the same dirty cloths, working to death through starvation, surrounded by
diseases and death. Women were shaved or had a rough haircut to look and feel
awful, in order to make mattresses out of human hair. Awful! Then there was a
long research investigation on a lamp that shows up on a camp picture and said
to be make of human skin. Creepy!
Even though, some found the strength
to fight back for their freedom. In this sense, there is a great movie based on
a true story that emphasized exactly this fight for freedom: ‘Escape from Sobibor’ (1987 – Jack Gold, director). I know the movie well, as I watched
several times. It is a well done movie!
To
sum up, the virtual museum tour at the Holocaust Museum & Learning Center
in St. Louis (USA) ended in a positive and optimistic note. And I am a happy
endings lover. I know about the official ‘superior race’ nazi party ideology,
but I tend to believe also in a group of evil spirited people, who got together
and worked in a organized way, in order to get the political power to have the
freedom to unaccountably satisfy their desire for sufferance and murder. In
this way, I can explain myself the brainwashing of so many tens of millions of
people, with rare exceptions that were not touched by this evil and that took
risks to continue doing good, and who have beaten evil by doing good, as the
Bible says. Last, but not least, I consider that all the victims of different
backgrounds, sexual orientations, races, etc. in camps and in the war trenches
was a whole generation chosen by God in the fight against evil. They were chosen
so that He makes a point – that He always wins. Just that for us, the price is
hard to bear and we need more divine strength. But now that the war is over,
does this mean that the fight between Good and evil is over, too? If the Good
is always The Same, is it possible for the evil to have metamorphosized into
something more subtle and less visible? Typical questions during virus pandemics
while quarantined at home. I can’t wait to take a walk in the beautiful
outdoors. From indoors though, I wish a …
HAPPY and HEALTHY
EASTER!
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