saving the present from the past

I recently wrote about comparing modern people to Nazis. This was shortly after visiting the site of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. One of the things the guide told us resonated with me, children, soldiers and visiting soldiers come here as a warning. They are shown around the camp, the mass graves and the memorials, part of the past is revealed. Its to warn people of something that happened and a warning ever to let it happen again.

The tour guided always called the people that worked there as Nazis, a different group of people compared to regular Germans. with Hitlers propaganda about how well Germany was doing that many Germans wouldn’t have known about the concentration camps until the end of war. Even then, some were still known as prisoner of war camps, something you might expect in a war.

It was later in the war that Bergen Belsen changed from a prisoner camp to a concentration camp. Though in a relatively short time they still managed to kill thousands and keep people in squalor so many more died of illness. When the camp was taken over at the end of the war the huts were burned to prevent disease spreading outside the camp, soldiers needed to bury hundreds who were scattered around the camp.

Its incredibly eerie as you go in, you start at the place the fence went round the camp. The boundary line still remains, a gap in the trees. As the guide describes the bodies that would have been pile up and the hundreds stuffed in cabins its easy to imagine them. The cabins are gone but their footprints remain, you can see how small they were.

The above grave stones were added after the war, simply to remember who died there. As everyone ended up in one of the mass graves the stones are simply near various grave sites. The mass graves have signs saying if they contained 3 thousand or 5 thousand bodies or remains from the crematorium. Archaeologists had asked if they could try and find Anne Franks body using DNA testing. They were not allowed, as the huts were burned so were the records. There is a large stone by the main memorial area stating the numbers who died from certain groups.

This is just one of the mass graves, as you can see the number in it is an approximation. While looking for the right pictures I found many of open mass graves with hundreds of dead being piled on top of each other . I will let you, dear reader, find them yourselves if you wish. They are truly sickening so approach with care.

This says it all really, thousands upon thousands killed, and this was one of the smaller camps. Even though there is little of the original camp there its still strange walking round it. You can see the trees around the site and inside, you can see where the graves are and you can see groups walking round , mainly in silence.

My wife sat on this bench in the museum and just stared out, lost in anger and sadness. We had walked where thousands had walked, the difference is that we managed to leave. Another thing the guide showed us was there were lots of trees but no birds. The trees outside were full, inside were empty. In the museum there are stories of people who died there, along with some more distressing photos.

The reason to write this is two fold, to educate in 2 different ways. Both of my children have autism and learning delay. This means they cant sit and listen to a teacher and then write down information from a board. Therefore we as parents took them places to show the things they had learned about. Showed them where henry V111 lived and where the battle of Hastings took part. There was nothing remaining from the battle except the hill it took part on. We had an audio tour and immediately we felt part of everything. Above all my kids learnt something extra.

My point about first hand learning is more specific. The guide told us how he visited the camp as a child, how local based soldiers and the bus trips are regular to the site. You get to see first hand what happened, with the warning for it never to be allowed to happen again. When we went there was a group of Dutch soldiers standing by one of the memorials. They were based in another part of the site, with German soldiers. An added extra to the tour was some of the other resident soldiers were practising with shells and machine guns. Therefore there was the constant sound of explosions and bullets flying, just to make it more real.

History was one of my school subjects, I learned a lot about the second world war and new of the concentration camps. Nothing before had the same effect as visiting a camp, walking the same paths and breathing the same air. The trees had obviously been there at the same time. This is how to teach an old dog like me or an older child the reality of life, only 80 years ago. These are the stories that need to be passed on, must be learnt by all as a warning. Mentioning no names, there’s a big orange president who maybe should visit and learn.