By Mari Angulo.
Click photos for detail and captions.
Click photos for detail and captions.
10+ years ago I Visited Dachau near Munich, and yesterday we visited the Sachsenhausen memorial in Oranienburg. Likely due to our turbulent status quo, this visit to the Sachsenhausen site brought up several things:
The realization that I don't have the capacity to imagine the terror of its prisoners. Amazement at the endless creativity for torturing and systematic murder of hundreds and thousands of people. A sense of being dumbfounded at the complicity of civilians coupled with an understanding of the complexity of this evil phenomenon.
While white supremacy ideals are not German, and evil is a human problem, somehow all the right ingredients came together with the right time and place for the holocaust. With white supremacy on the rise, even in Germany the extreme right wing will likely have a voice in the parliament after next week's elections. Trump is already the president of the US and there are leaders all over the western world ready to uphold fascist ideals.
Being far from resolution in this matter, we must stand our ground. We can't afford not to learn from our mistakes. There is too much at stake to flirt with these ideas or to become desensitized to the messages that uphold them. Pay attention. Speak up. We cannot be complicit.
The realization that I don't have the capacity to imagine the terror of its prisoners. Amazement at the endless creativity for torturing and systematic murder of hundreds and thousands of people. A sense of being dumbfounded at the complicity of civilians coupled with an understanding of the complexity of this evil phenomenon.
While white supremacy ideals are not German, and evil is a human problem, somehow all the right ingredients came together with the right time and place for the holocaust. With white supremacy on the rise, even in Germany the extreme right wing will likely have a voice in the parliament after next week's elections. Trump is already the president of the US and there are leaders all over the western world ready to uphold fascist ideals.
Being far from resolution in this matter, we must stand our ground. We can't afford not to learn from our mistakes. There is too much at stake to flirt with these ideas or to become desensitized to the messages that uphold them. Pay attention. Speak up. We cannot be complicit.
