The Memorial and Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau was established to remind the world of the Holocaust and thereby help to prevent it from ever happening again. Visitors could see with their own eyes the very worst of man's inhumanity to man and come away with their minds changed – agents of tolerance and peace. That was the thinking behind the recent invitation to a group of influential American Muslims to visit Auschwitz. The trip was organized and sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Thomas Schmid went along with the group and, as he writes in Die Welt, changing minds requires a great deal of self-reflection and genuine dilalogue – both of which were in short supply on the visit by the US Muslim delegation. Part of the problem is that the Memorial and Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau has become a victim of its own success. Busloads of tourists have transformed the site into a Disney-like attraction, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to reflect on the horrors that took place at the camps:
Diese Gedenkstätte verhindert Gedenken, erschwert es zumindest
beträchtlich. An diesem sonnigen Augusttag hat das Lager in fast allen
Winkeln etwas – man kann es nicht anders sagen – Idyllisches. Tiefgrüne
Bäume säumen die Wege, Besuchergruppen kommen um die Ecke und
entschwinden wieder. Vielerorts zwischen den Baracken und Häusern ist
das Gras frisch gemäht, es duftet nach Heu, die spuren des Rasenmähers
zeichnen sich auf dem adretten Grün ab. Nebendran steht eine der
riesigen steinernen Walzen, die einst die ausgemergelten Häftlinge beim
Straßenbau schleppen mussten – hier wirkt sie fast wie eines jener
Relikte alter Handwerkskunst, mit denen in Deutschland gerne die
Vorgärten von Ferienhäusern drapiert werden.Auf den Gleisen, die in Birkenau zur Rampe führen, schlendern junge
Leute, eine Mutter ruft ihr schreiendes Kind zur Ordnung. Es sind zu
viele Menschen da, als dass Ergriffenheit um sich greifen könnte.
Auschwitz ist, leider, auch ein großer Rummelplatz.(This memorial inhibits reflection, or at least makes it
considerably difficult. On this sunny August day there is almost something –
there is no other way to put it – idyllic about the camp in every corner. Deep green trees line the roads. Groups of visitors appear around the corner
and then vanish again. At many places
between the barracks and the houses the grass has just been mowed, there is the
smell of hay, the traces of the mower are visible on the neat lawn. Nearby is one of the huge stone rollers
which the emaciated prisoners were forced to pull for building the roads – here
it almost seems like one of those relics of ancient handicraft which in Germany
today adorn the front yards of vacation homes.
Young people are strolling on the tracks that
lead to the ramp at Birkenau and a mother quiets her crying child. There are simply too many people here for the
emotions to sink in. Auschwitz,
unfortunately, has also become a big amusement park.)
Read my entire translation over at Watching America.
