Some things I'll just never understand

When I was in the eighth grade I was assigned to write an essay based on the quote, "those who can not learn about history are doomed to repeat it". While doing my research for the essay, I was introduced to the atrocities of the Holocaust and from then on found myself always intrigued by the subject.

While I was backpacking through Europe as a university student, I visited a friend who lived in Germany. She was Taiwanese like me but raised in Germany. She asked what I'd like to see and among my list was seeing the concentration camp in Dachau.

There was a strange calm and eerieness at Dachau, with only the sound of the gravel crunching under our feet, as we walked through the camp where the barracks used to be. I had a strange lump in my throat the entire time as I walked through the memorial site. It was hard to fathom that I was actually standing on the same ground that the Holocaust victims stood, worked, hoped, starved, tortured and executed. All the images I had seen in the books and everything I had read did not really prepare me for the emotions I felt - both nauseous and also a sense of duty to pay my respects and honour those who had suffered and died at the hands of the Nazis.

Later that evening, I asked my friend if they studied the war in school and how it was interpreted. She simply told me that her generation of Germans had a hard time being proud of their country and being German. Such irony, considering it was the pride of Hitler and being the greatest nation and race in the world that now caused them to feel such great shame.

A few years ago, I went to Poland to visit my mother in law with PB. While we were there, I asked PB if we could go to Auschwitz. He knew my interest in the Holocaust and while he couldn't really understand why I was so fascinated by it, indulged me and we took a day trip. Auschwitz was a whole different experience because there were so many more remains of the camp. A room full of human hair that the Germans collected from women to sell and then make fabric; another room piled up to the top filled with shoes, and yet another with suitcases - all testament of the people who passed through the gates and most likely never left the grounds. There was also a 5'x5'x5' cube of left over cans of Zyclone B, the gas which they used to exterminate the victims. It was here that I also learned more about Dr. Mengele and other "doctors" and their shocking medical experimentation on inmates. It also amazed me to see the mass amounts of paper documentation that the Nazis kept. It has long been ridiculed at how good the Germans were at documenting everything, and here they had all the evidence in writing that would convict them of the most atrocious crimes.

We also went to Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II, that was really the epicentre of mass death. The gates to Birkenau didn't even have the traditional ruse of "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work makes (one) free) as it was used exclusively as an extermination camp. The Nazis tried to destroy the camp and successfully did so with much of it, but enough remains to tell a very grim and horrific story. It was a somber day but it left me grateful for all the things I do have in life.

My mother in law also shared a story about her older brother during the war. He was 13 or so and friends of the family had managed to get him a job at a factory making something for Germans (she couldn't remember what) rather than being sent to a work camp. He became part of the Polish Resistance. One day while he was walking to work with a group of fellow workers he was also smuggling some ammunition in his pocket. They were stopped en route by Nazis for a random inspection. They were all ordered to show their papers and all their possessions. While the other men hid him from the Nazis, he slipped the bullets into his thermos of coffee. The Nazis made their way to him and asked him what was in his thermos. He replied that it was coffee for his breakfast. They demanded that he show them what was in the thermos, so he carefully poured some coffee out. Luckily, the shells didn't pour out nor did they make enough sound to cause any further questioning and he was released to go with the rest of the men to work.

Before going to bed last night I took a quick peak at Reuter's list of top stories and came across this headline : "Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proud of Holocaust denial." I know there are some who deny that the Holocaust ever existed, but I just can't seem to wrap my head around it. With all the proof that is in existence, documentation, real accounts from survivors and those who liberated the camps, and the physical evidence alone, it is mind boggling that there are ignorant idiots who spiel such garbage. I actually researched some sites and message boards that are dedicated to those who don't believe in the Holocaust or the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I was absolutely shocked at how they interpret what is proof of these events. I was surprised that there wasn't a site that negates the African slave trading, although I'm sure there is somewhere and I just couldn't find it.

As a believer that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, it truly scares me as to what Ahmadinejad and other crazy militant leaders could attempt in terms of annihilating a country or race. I am just grateful that civilized and educated nations are much more aware and proactive and hopefully will never let anything like the Holocaust happen again, although, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur seem to refute that.