Saturday, July 22, 2006

Discontinuity in preserving Nazi Party related history

After visiting the former Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremburg and Dachau, I was struck by the clear struggle that Germany has had since the second world war in dealing with, and to various degrees preserving, the monuments of the time. In Nuremburg, it was obvious that there was an intentional effort to avoid any glorification of the Nazi gathering sites. While I understand the reasoning behind this, it seems like having all the events, like the upcoming auto racing, serves to create a less powerful atmosphere. I was expecting the experience to be very moving and find myself overwhelmed by powerful nature of the rally grounds; rather I was merely struggling to hear and and only partially able to imaginwe the area without busses and tall weeds. Dachau on the other hand was exceptionally moving and hard to take. The tour guide did a great job of explaning the psychological torture that is often over looked as we focus on the harsh physical conditions.
The discontinuity of the two sites in terms of how they are preserved are shiocking to me. I would never begin to argue that the two should be maintained equally, but by creating such a museam like atmosphere at Dachau and avoiding the very same thing in Nuremburg, it seems as if their is considerable less emphasis placed in remembering how the events at Dachau and other camps came about than their is on the actual conditions at the camp. People must remember both. If we fail to realize how it is that the Nazi party rose to power and used propaganda to spread their beliefs, we are just that much more likely to allow a similar catastrophe to take place in the future.

(Interlaken is absolutely beautiful)

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