To never forget
In Germany there are big events and parties taking place today, especially in Berlin, to celebrate the 9th of November – as the 20th re-union day of the BRD and the DDR.
But there is no big or official event mourning the 71th return of one of the most dreadful days in German history – the Reichskristallnacht.
This day started as a pogrom against all Jewish people in the Third Reich – and led to the Shoa and the destruction of a whole continent.
Several weeks after the Reichskristallnacht the Nazis opened the concentration camp Neuengamme in Hamburg, Germany. It was the biggest KZ in the north of Germany and around 100.400 people were detained here. They were primarily people from the occupied countries who were forced to work in the German war industries. This work was aimed at destroying the prisoners – physically and psychically. More than 51.000 people died. At least 16.000 people were killed in the last days of the war in so-called death-marches and “Sterbelager”.
The photos were shot in this KZ-Area. They seem unremarkable and could have been taken anywhere in Germany. And that is the point of it. The KZs were widely known to the Germans– and without the massive support of the Germans the aim of totally annihilating of the Jews (and after a foreseen victory in the war also the extermination of half of the East-Europe population) could never have been carried through. The unspeakable came out of the center of this country – and the masses willingly supported such aims up to the last days of the Third Reich – as Goldhagen has shown it in his book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners”.
We should never forget… and we should know, that anti-Semitism and racism comes not from the edges of our society, but directly from the so-called “middle” of it!
Great post, so many people want to overlook the uncomfortable parts of history and just focus on the outcome. It’s necessary to confront such events if we are to understand and learn from these mistakes. No one wants this kind of history to repeat, but sadly it still is in some parts of the world.
Thx again Jeff for your comment and the true words….