This picture is from the inside of one of the barracks, taken during my trip to Germany in March. In 1992, neo-Nazis set fire to this building and one other shortly after the then-Prime Minister of Israel visited the camp. The directors of the site chose not to repair the damage, and thus leave a reminder that this type of hatred is still strong today. Five years after the arson, the camp was reopened as a memorial.
During my visit to the camp, there were many chilling moments, and I certainly can't say that this was the most chilling (that label is reserved for Station Z and the morgue). However, it was certainly shocking and upsetting to realize that within the last twenty years, it has been shown that the hatred of the Holocaust is still strong.
When I was researching to determine the date of this particular event, I found several sites listing reports of anti-Semetic incidents. Within the last month, an Adolf Hitler doll has been manufactured in the Ukraine, a Jewish cemetary in Germany was vandalized, a synagogue in Miami Beach was set ablaze, and vandals painted swastikas and graffiti on a Holocaust memorial in Belarus, among other events. It is more clear to me now than ever that the atrocities of the Holocaust are not strictly locked in the past, but are still with us today.
For information about anti-Semetic incidents since October 1, 2001, see The Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism's website at http://www.antisemitism.org.il/.
Prior to that date, information is available at the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Antisemitism Monitoring Forum, at http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Anti-Semitism+and+the+Holocaust/Antisemitism+Monitoring+Forum/.
3 comments:
I find it utterly disgusting that people would do something like that...
Interesting articles/topic!
I agree ... but it's a reminder to us all ... that discrimination and hatred are not only an historical reality - it's also a contemporary reality ... that's why thinking about the role of the bystander is so important.
Discrimination and hatred are also a very real part of our own college campus. If any of you have been reading the Anchor lately, then you have seen the articles about Rainbow Alliance materials being vandalized in broad daylight (with swastikas, anti-gay slurs, etc) with no witnesses...right. No witnesses. The fact that this is happening in Donovan and people are refusing to admit it says volumes about intolerance.
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