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Page 16 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 1 2, 1 986
Remembering the past
Dachau Museum overwhelms Atlantans
and laundry, now the museum.
by Deborah Spielberg
Driving through Europe, my
mother and I decided to make a
detour trom Munich to visit
Dachau just a half hour outside
the city. We set out on the
Dachauerstrasse(Dauchau Street)
on a cold and rainy morning, the
appropriate weather for seeing
the first established German
concentration camp.
We entered the camp with some
trepidation, noticing the guard
towers still in place. There were
only two barracks still standing;
those had been rebuilt (the real
ones were too poorly constructed
to last). The rectangular founda
tions of the rows of the other bar
racks seemed to go on forever.
My mother, impressed by the
si/e of the camp which had housed
30,000 people at any given
time—“like a small city”—could
just feel how all those people
were “packed” into the camp.
We entered the old kitchen
The first exhibit a chart
showed each major city in central
Europe and the concentration
camps near to it. For my mother,
who had grown up in Berlin in
the 1930s, all these names brought
back “the memories of what it
was like to grow up in Germany
in the ’30s the oppression, the
restrictive laws aimed particularly
against the Jews.” Until 1936 my
mother was in a public school in
Germany (after 1936 she had to
go to an all-Jewish school) and
she remembered the other chil
dren refusing to play with the
Jews. But most of all this exhibit
brought back the feeling for her
of w hat it meant to be constantly
frightened. “When the govern
ment is the terrorist and it is all-
powerful, then there is no protec
tion. That,” she explained, “is the
scariest feeling in the world.”
The museum began with Ger
many in the 1800s, tracing the
origins of the discussion of the
Flan of camp.
“Jewish Question,” working up
to 1933 and the opening of
Dachau. Photographs documented
some of the earlier prisoners ar
riving at Dachau, not all Jews,
also others opposed to Hitler’s
regime. Citizens from almost
every European nation were pri
soners at Dachau; their presence
represented with the names of
the countries on commemorative
posts. Signs were placed outside
the camp warning the residents
of the town of Dachau not to
interfere or try to enter the camp;
the sign recounted the story of
one man who tried to peek in and
was severely reprimanded; but.
the sign warned, future trespassers
would join the prisoners.
The exhibit also chronicled
events outside ol Dachau, includ
ing “Kristallnacht," the night
w hen Germans destroyed Jewish
businesses, synagogues, and took
all the Jewish men to concentra
tion camps. Photographs also
display the Warsaw ghetto upris
ing and the heart-breaking sut-
render. One poignant photograph
shows a religious Jew praying
next to Jews w ho had been killed
as German soldiers ridicule him.
One also follows the progression
of the war with the exhibit end
ing with photographs of the lib
eration of Dachau.
Although not enormous, the
museum was comprehensive. Coupled
with the camp it sell, it effectively
conveyed a sense ot concentra
tion camp life. As we wandered
outside and glanced in the special
building with solitary confinement
cells for punished prisoners, an
irrational fear of w hat we would
see held us back. Of course there
were only empty cells.
Protestant, Catholic and Jew
ish groups each erected memor
ials at the camp site to show
remembrance of the Holocaust
which cut across religious diversi
ties.
Alter all the memorials, exhib
its, films and books I had seen
and read about the Holocaust, I
was still particularly touched bv
this visit. Perhaps it was being on
German soil and in an actual
concentration camp, perhaps it
was just the grimness of the day.
Initially 1 felt complete revulsion
toward the Germans, but then as
I looked I noticed a number ol
young German people respecting
visiting and 1 realized that I was
also touched by the respect with
which the whole subject was
treated in this museum. I did not
feel bitterness so much as over
whelming sadness and bewilder
ment at the crimes committed.
As 1 neared the end of the
museum 1 felt the history had
been presented respectfully and
movingly. The last words of the
exhibit are Santayana’s famous
w ords: “Those w ho cannot remem
ber the past are condemned to
repeat it.” By the side of the
quote was book for visitors to
w rite their reactions to the camp.
Alter reading several people’s
comments and noting the emo
tion in their remarks, 1 searched
for my own appropriate words
but instead could only find tears
as 1 scribbled “zachor” (remem
ber) and walked with my mother
out into the rain.
Pc ho rah Spielberg is the
daughter of (Ha and Sol Spiel
berg of Atlanta. She recently
returned from /'ranee, where she
spent a year after graduating
from Swathmore College in
Pennsylvania.
Report discloses
slave labor used
bycarfirmin’40s
Mazel Tov
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Owned By Henn, U liarbaia Grossberg
Israel t, Yetra Goldberg
by David kantor
BONN (JTA) the Daimler-
Benz L orporation, manufacturer
id the prestigious Mercedes-Benz
car. lormally acknowledged that
it employed thousands ol slave
laborers during the Nazi era in a
report prepared lor it bv an his
torian, Prolessor Hans Pohl. just
released here.
The report, however, makes
no reference to possible repara
tions lor the surviving slave
laborers or their families.
According to the report, some
5,000 slave laborers were em
ployed by Daimler-Benz in I94l
and the number rose to 18,000 in
1943, most ol them recruited
from among concentration camp
inmates, including large numbers
of Jews.
1 he slave laborers received no
compensation whatever and, near
the end of the war, were so badly
treated that they could not work.
I be company ordered the re
port last year after it was critic
ized lor the way it handled claims
by former slave laborers.
Daimler-Benz rejected them
initially on grounds that thev had
neither legal nor moral standing.
But later it signaled readiness to
discuss the matter with Jewish
and other organizations rep
resenting former slave laborers.
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