It has been a while since I last wrote, what with work being as hectic as it is and things happening around the house. Anyway I am on a week long holiday at home and one of the things that was recommended was to visit a museum in Mechelen. I must warn you that this particular blog is somewhat more serious than my usual offerings.
The Museum that my wife and I visited is called the Kazerne Dossin, the Holocaust Museum in Mechelen. The name derives from the barracks (Kazerne) Dossin where Jewish people were sent to be processed and board transportation for the concentration camps during the 2nd World War. Before I continue I must say that the museum is very simple, if a little understated, but the impact is profound. I have read a fair bit about the holocaust and other related material but I could not help but be shocked by the scale and barbarity of what was done. The views I give here are my own and I do not intend to shock or offend anyone, I simply want to say how I felt and what I was thinking as I walked through the halls of pictures.
The museum itself is in a plain white building with five floors and a basement. The basement houses a café and the top floor houses a special exhibition area, which was not open when we went today. The entry fee is 10 Euros for a regular adult and begins with an introductory video on the ground floor. They have hand held audio devices which have the narrative in English, Dutch and French. The video goes through the persecution of the Jewish people through the ages and explains a little about why this has happened before stopping short of the main purpose of the museum, which is to mark the rise and impact of the Nazis on this unfortunate storey.
You can see before you ascend the stairs the walls covered in passport photos of the victims who were transported from Kazerne Dossin, the photos that are not greyed out are those who survived this awful time, there are not many in the sea of pictures.
The next three floors are broken down into Mass, Fear and Death. Somewhat brief explanations for discussing the subject and why things happened the way they did. In the first instance when they refer to mass they are suggesting that if a crowd or group is large enough and can be persuaded by a hard line minority then they can be swayed. The argument, often stated, is that the depression and the humiliating defeat of the Germans in the First World War created the right conditions for the masses to seek an alternative and a common 'enemy'. It was with this background that the rise of the Nazis was possible. Poor economic conditions often give rise to civil unrest and the desire to blame others for the failures is not uncommon. I say this because given the recent credit crunch and severe economic conditions nations have sought to place the blame for this at various places and indeed society has become less tolerant of those who do not contribute to the wealth of the nation. One of my thoughts was that could this ever happen again, you would think not but then we have seen similar things in other countries such as the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
The second section entitled Fear suggested that once in power this small group of extremists can keep control of the masses by instilling fear in them. One does not have to look far to see where that has happened more recently. In the case of the Nazis they destroyed any political opposition and established tight control over the German people. As you can imagine this created a wave of refugees as they ostracised the Jewish community with renewed vigour. It is important to point out that they did not just limit themselves to the Jewish population but also they looked at other groups such as the Roma people with the same disregard. The result of this was that there were many foreign refugees in Belgium (and in other countries) before Kazerne Dossin came into use as a transportation centre. In fact the point was made that a lot of the nations did not do a great deal to assist and that the unhealthy attitude towards the Jewish community was not a sole attribute of the German nation.
The last section, Death, was quite hard hitting as you would expect. It was about the transportation and extermination of people. I have read some quite harrowing accounts of this before and seen imagery of the atrocities as well but nothing can stop the sense of revulsion and astonishment that one human being can be so barbaric to another.
When moving through this particular museum the main thoughts I had were that what had taken place was practically on my (adopted) doorstep. Such things had not happened in the UK, although I am sure the Scots, Irish and Welsh will have examples of similar behaviour towards them, I am not sure if it ever amounted to extermination on an industrial scale. I thought too of my family and how I would feel if they were in this position, there was no quarter given, age and sex were irrelevant it was a process as cold as that was.
What was interesting in this case is the contribution of Belgium to this process, the presentation made a point of emphasising the effective Belgian Civil Service in staffing the deportation of the victims. In fact there was a suggestion that more, much more could have been done to hinder this activity. It is unfair, however to lay total blame on those who were involved in the machinery of staffing the deportation of the Jewish and other victims. As with any country at that time, individuals would be compelled to choose between what is morally correct and doing what they had to in order to survive. There were both sympathisers and those who actually believed in what they were doing was right, again any country at the time would have had such a mix of people. It was interesting to note that some key politicians at the time decided to collaborate with the Germans, but then surely a politician's aim is to remain in power and therefore this is not surprising. There were examples of those who did their best to hinder the process and indeed powerful people who resigned rather than be complicit in the activity. I did think that collaborators are just those who ended up on the wrong side at the end of the war, morally of course the 'right' side won, but no doubt there are examples of atrocities committed by the winning side (I just don't have the knowledge to talk about them).
I did wonder whether the UK would have behaved in the same manner as Belgium if confronted with the same situation. I decided that we would have behaved the same way because the same dilemmas would have presented themselves to us and people would have to make a choice.
Another of the interesting parts of the exhibition showed that the majority of the resistance came from the Wallonian part of the country. More acts of sabotage were taking place in the French speaking side than the Flemish. I am sure we could have a wide ranging debate on the reasons and moral arguments behind the statistics and I am not sure what the museum was getting at by highlighting this to the visitors.
Probably the most striking image out of the whole collection was one of a group of women and children stripped naked and being marched towards a pit, where they were about to be executed. In the sequence of photographs there was a lady hanging back, I cannot remember if she had a child as well but it was clear from the image that she was heavily pregnant. I stood for some time looking at this image before turning away. I thought of that unborn child, words failed me at this point and they still do.
When I did my equality and diversity course the instructors made a point that such discriminatory behaviour often starts at the very basic level where one person creates a perceived difference and others begin to follow. It starts with words and then escalates up to actions which get ever more extreme. People probably think it is too far fetched that calling someone names will lead to genocide but the reality is that it can and it did.
As a child at school I remember the schoolyard and the harsh reality that I grew up in, attitudes were different in the 70s and 80s but that does not excuse the behaviour. What was clear and becomes clearer every time I visit such places as Kazerne Dossin is that as a child I simply did not understand the impact of what was said or done. I was, to an extent, following the mass at the time. I was taught by my mother to stand up for my beliefs and not to be afraid to stand alone if I felt that was the right thing to do, I have done so many times. To hide within a crowd is to lack the moral courage to say and do what is right and this is what happened, in my opinion.
I would encourage anyone to take the time out to visit these places and try and understand what happened and why and then to apply that to the world they live in today to make sure we avoid such a thing happening again.
It is important that we remember and understand.
www.kazernedossin.eu
No comments:
Post a Comment