The Daily Mail’s Bel Mooney writes:
We took a rare holiday, on the River Danube, cruising from Passau to beautiful Budapest. It seemed amazing that in one week we could set foot in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary – flying visits, of course, but fascinating nonetheless.
Among many memories, two things stand out in my mind. First, near Linz in Austria (which Hitler considered his hometown) is Mauthausen Memorial site. This was one of the most brutal and severe of the Nazi concentration camps; prisoners suffered not only from malnutrition, overcrowding and constant abuse and beatings, but also from exceptionally hard labour.
We saw the terrible quarry where they were broken and killed, the gas chamber, and the heart-breaking ‘Room of Names’ honouring the thousands of dead: political enemies of the Nazis, Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and (of course) the Jews, who were treated with the worst brutality.
You might think that doesn’t sound like holiday fun, and you’d be correct. But we need to bear witness to what can happen in plain sight of ‘innocent’ communities all around. Extremism and collusion can happen all too easily within societies. Mauthausen made me weep and rage – the only possible response. I shall never forget it.
It’s happier to recall the national pride of guides in (especially) Bratislava and Budapest. We heard how students and workers rose up against the Soviet oppressors and how the end of Communism enabled Slovakia and Hungary to be reborn.
I loved their delight in their own culture, their wish to protect it, and the welcoming patriotism that made me suspect they were rather sorry for us tourists – born elsewhere. It was genuine, unforced and I couldn’t help but wish we had more of it here.
I had precisely the same reaction upon visiting Dachau, outside Munich — tears of rage and sadness, even though it came in the middle of an otherwise-idyllic vacation in Austria and southern Germany.
I think it behooves us, every time we travel abroad, to take a day off from the museums and bistros and rub our noses in the history of the place. Otherwise, we are just tourists and not travelers.
I’m concerned that if I visit any of those sites of atrocities, I’ll get so mad that I’ll get more active in removing nazis, communists, socialists, fascists and other totalitarians from the community of breathing people
I mentioned this in a comment on one of yesterday’s posts, but I visited Mauthausen during my semester abroad in Europe. Ms. Mooney’s reaction to the place mirrors my own, but her description IMO undersells just how horrific and heartbreaking the site is.
History is ugly. I haven’t been there and at this age probably won’t make it.
But I wish we had other remembrance museums as well, focusing on the Bolsheviks, Chicoms, etc. I think the Nazis get a lot more credit than the others because of the Teutonic obsession with record keeping, whilst the others were content to have someone starve to death in a roadside ditch. Well that and Western Academia were Leftist sympathizers who were apologists for it, for reasons I’ll leave up to the readers.
I visited both Dachau and Mauthausen, but it was some 45 years ago for both and I’ve forgotten most things I saw there.
In part that’s no doubt because my parents probably shielded me from the worst of it, and WW2 history wasn’t taught in detail in primary school (it WAS in secondary school, had we visited a few years later I’d have understood things that much better).
I do remember though the emotions, the general sense of horror.
Never again.
I too went on vacation to Germany and went to Dachau. Felt it was a moral imperative. I was foolish and thought I’d go in the morning then visit the lovely town in the afternoon. I was not prepared for the anger and despair and depression that resulted. I’m not one to be into the woo of ‘feeling the souls who died,’ but god dammit thats how i felt.
I did ok until our guide pointed out the shrines at the far end that we could go see, a Christian one, a Jewish one, and then outside the fence in the woods, we could see the onion dome of a Russian orthodox shrine. I asked why it was out there, and she said that Hitler decided that Russian soldiers were no longer considered POWs but criminals and were to be executed, so they took them out there in the woods and killed them. Most were just boys, not even 18. Hell, so many were. But that was my emotional tipping point.
I did NOT stay in their lovely town, i went straight to the train station and left, the day was shot.
Replying to myself, how lame is that?
I went with PolishWife to see her homeland and family and we went to Krakow and of course, Auschwitz. I was prepared this time. Wife had been there as a teen. There is a display in a building there where they had piles of shoes, and luggage, then one with a lot – a LOT – of human hair shorn from the new female arrivals. My wife, an anesthetist who has seen blood and guts and mucus and vomit at work every day, gagged and had to leave. Not that it was gross, but something about the humanity of it – or the lack of humanity I suppose – just hits you in the gut.
Sadly a LOT of people think it was all a great idea and we should do it all over and finish the job, exterminating not just the Jews but all “undesirables” including conservatives, homosexuals, transgender people, “mentally defectives”, and the ever unspoken “anyone who’s not a white heterosexual socialist”.
Quentin, you forgot the additional piece to take onto “Never Again!” That is the “Stay armed” part
I was sent to Krakow, Poland in the 80’s to install/train some computer gear at the medical college. They were in the process of pushing the Russian Army out of the country but some still remained. Everyone was concerned how long it would take for capitalism to make things better. I said in 5 years it should be a noticeable improvement, if the new government doesn’t steal all the money. The problem was mostly mental. Anyway I knew Auschwitz was close by and I felt like it was a human responsibility to witness this personally. I asked everyone I was working with and training, about how to get there and tour information. To a man, every single one denied knowing anything about it and made made it clear I should ask anymore.
Indirectly related, it appears the Germans in power (the permanent state) are about to fine VW to the tune of 1.5 Billion euros for not meeting the “green” targets for EV sales.
Having owned VW products on and off for over 45 years, I think this is the death knell for the company, by their own government no less.
Always remember that the deep state demands targets be met, no matter the users don’t want what is being foisted and the manufacturer unable to make a saleable product that meets the rules, is caught in a no-win situation where he cannot please both the state and the consumer.
Boils down to the fact that German (and other) politicians simply did not learn any lessons from the last 2 wars and are now about to find out what happens when Uncle Sugar (we the taxpayer) cease to support their delusions.
I think they learned the lesson of Mark Twain’s cat on the hot stove. As he put it once, if a cat sits on a hot stove, he won’t sit on a hot stove again, but he will never sit on a cold stove either. The Germans did not learn to fight evil; they learned it was evil to fight.