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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 Our best wishes to your favorite young man or young woman. Celebrate them with pride. After all. a Bar or Bat Mitzvah only comes once in a lifetime. And, let us make that occasion a memorable one. Our banquet facilities can accommodate groups of almost any size. A professional catering staff handles even the most unique requirements including beverages, cakes, pastries, decorations, and flowers. Arrangements for quality entertainment are also available, as well as special guest room rates for your out-of-town guests. A convenient location off 1-85 and Clairmont Road means easy access. And, of course, there is our free parking. 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Smyrna, Georgia 30080 (404) 432-4444 Dave Morgan, Administrator 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. The Southern Israelite A Prize-Winning Newspaper nmsc .V . ,4' •.. v *