Uproar at Auschwitz plans

Fury at Auschwitz plans

 

Well, it depends. First, we don't know the extent of the renovation proposed. Second, it is not a good idea to let things as they stand as over time all the structures will suffer decay and will become rubble, so you need conservation. Third, if the idea is to make the monument more, how shall I put it, welcoming to visitors, with some amenities, etc, I have no objection. There are already some visitor facilities built, and I don't think nobody is suggesting painting the ovens pink, or putting a spa in the gas chambers.

http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/html/eng/start/index.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp contains some recent photos

 

I would think that the focus needs to be in the role of the site. Education and rememberance is the goal. So even if 'beautification' is what they are talking about, I do not think it is a big deal unless it detracts from the goal. Look at the memorials around the world and there is a touch of beauty in their design along with the somber value. My 2 cents.

 

It should be a grim place to visit.
The article refers to other camps being tarted up somewhat, therefore for at least one example shouldn't they follow the sort of thing the National Trust did with Calke Abbey?
Millions have been spent there (Calke) and the house is now 'preserved' exceptionally well but it still looks as worn and lived in as the day the last owner died, no glamour has been added and the place is more moving, realistic and affecting than any 'restoration'.
Not having been to Auschwitz though, I don't know what state the place is in now.
Cheers,
Adam.

 

Don't know about Auschwitz but I have been to Bergen-Belsen and Dachau. Sprucing up did not take away from the sober reality of where we were. The important thing is that we not forget what happened there.

 

I've been to Auschwitz and I really think it would be a big mistake to "beautify" it in any way. Restoration on the buildings, so as to keep them from decaying, is of course unavoidable, but I definitely wouldn't make it "friendlier for the eye". Even the grass that grows in Birkenau somehow seems unreal, when one knows it was all dust and mud during the Holocaust. But at least the grass grew back naturally, any man-made decorations wouldn't be appropriate in my opinion.

 

I think I am opposed to a renovation of the original Auschwitz. A better, but needless to say more costly option, would be to make a new full scale replica of maybe part of the camp perhaps near the original site. This way one could visit the ruins of Aushwitz at the actual location and also visit the replica location to see what it used to look like. I just don't think I would get that same feeling one usually gets when they walk around a place shrouded in history if I knew 50% of it was new construction.

 

i ditto you miller, a full scale model would be better...it doesent seem ethical to renovate something like Auschwitz...

 

If the replica was made in Las Vegas it would be accessible to more public instead of Middle of Nowhere in Poland.

 

las vegas? but see...las vegas is looked at as the gambling capitol....not "home of the full scale auschwitz replica...." something to think about locations...

 

I tend to feel they should only carry out work that is needed mainly maintenance work. It is a very tricky one too resolve due too the nature of the site.

 

Oh man. Perhaps fit in a game of Blackjack on your way to the gas chambers eh?

 

Whats the big deal? Russia condtructed them after WW2. When they fall apart,let Russia build them again.

 

May I ask what do you mean by this? The general idea is Auschwitz was built during the war by the Germans to eliminate a number of Jews and other undesirables, but if you found something different could you share with us?

 

I see that David Irving was let out of jail in Austria yesterday.....

 

No one was permitted in any of the 'concentration' camps in the Russian zone for several years after the war. Plenty of time to put their 'spin' on it. And we already know that the camps in Germany were not supposed extermination camps. As for David Ervin,Zundel and all those who 'dare' speak their minds (thought police at work again) and get to the 'whole' truth,they are kept quiet and put in jail. Sad. Let them debate the so-called 'experts. After all, what should there be to hide??

 

Irving, Zündel, and a number of other high profile Holocaust deniers have repeatedly debated academic, legal, and other experts on the subject. The deniers have consistantly lost such debates including a number of court cases. Some have had to pay tens of thousands out for publicly offering large sums if "anyone can prove the Holocaust acutally happened" etc.
The problem with such deniers is not so much their individual opinion which they are entitled to as their continued public and vocal demands that the Holocaust did not occur or was less significant even after having been clearly proved wrong both intellectually and legally. Essentially, they no longer offer any real or useful addition to legitimate debate on the subject. In short, they are bigotted in their view of the Holocaust.

 

I never understood how there can even be a debate over if the Holocaust happened or not. Simply put, if it did not, then what happened to the 6 million murdered Jews? Did they magically disappear for a few years, until the evil Russians killed them all as they occupied Eastern Europe? C'mon!

 

Lord of War: Be careful in what you ask on the subject of the Holocaust when dealing with deniers (of which Wood appears to be a minor player). The question you ask will almost certainly be explained away (wrongly but nonetheless by this method) that they simply went 'somewhere else.' That is, they moved.
This is definitely a subject in which you need to pick your fights carefully. Just a word of advice from someone who definitely follows it himself.

 

It never ceases to amaze me the ways that man can find to deny reality. I can remember as a child, the movies that we saw of what our troops found in the death camps. Now children are not allowed to see these scenes as being too gruesome. They then grow up thinking that there is not any evidence.