Genocide Memorials: History, Education and Awareness through Travel

Warning: this post contains graphic and disturbing images.  

Genocide is probably the farthest thing that comes to mind when one thinks about planning vacation and leisure travel. I didn’t seek it in my own travels, but somehow at some point, I find myself in standing in places that have witnessed or commemorated harrowing human suffering and tragedy brought on by the display of evil and brutality.

This thought has been on my mind lately as I’ve been watching episodes of Breaking Borders, a new Travel Channel series . The hosts, journalist Mariana Van Zeller and chef Michael Voltaggio, go to places with a history of conflict and attempt to bring together people from both sides for a meal and a discussion on the matter.

Two episodes that stood out for me were the ones that tackled the genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia.   It featured survivors and family members who recalled the dark days of torture and spoke of the loved ones they lost. Reading Pinay Travel Junkie’s post on a visit to the Armenia Genocide Museum brought on a further flood of emotions for me as I recalled the visits I’ve made to similar memorials and museums.

HOLOCAUST MEMORIALS

Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

The sorrow that washed over me during a trip to the Holocaust History Museum Yad Vashem in Jerusalem had left me shaken for weeks. The image of the roomful of discarded shoes of the victims still haunts me.   The exhibits depicted the lives of the victims and survivors, the vile anti-Semitic propaganda that the Nazi Party propagated, and the harrowing accounts of the massacres.

No photos were allowed to be taken inside the memorial. This pushed me further to take everything in with a fierce intensity. It made me more deliberate in regarding each artifact and sign, saying a silent prayer that this sort of atrocity would never be repeated in my lifetime. At that time, I wasn’t fully aware of the genocides that had occurred more recently and, sadly, in my lifetime.

 

 

Berlin, Germany

This beautiful cosmopolitan German city is no stranger to conflict and strife. One minute you are reminded by its place in history as one of the pivotal seats of power during the Nazi regime. The next minute, you run into a remnant of the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the Cold War era.

Two places where the Holocaust is remembered are the Topography of Terror and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The mere names of these sites provide a gut-wrenching reminder of the brutality of the systematic plan to annihilate the Jews.

Topography of Terror

The Topography of Terror is a museum built over the former site of the Gestapo and SS Headquarters in Berlin. It features institutional documents and photos that provide insight on the Nazi policies, over the site where many political prisoners were tortured and executed.

 

As a medical professional who works with the disabled especially among the children and the elderly, the law supporting the murder of patients was particularly appalling.

 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

A kilometer away from the Topography of Terror is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  The memorial consists of a undulating field of concrete slabs or stelae, covering an area of 19,000 square meters and containing 2,711 concrete blocks built on a slanted hill. To many it evokes the look and feeling of a cemetery.  The original project text explained that the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere.  And it does.  There is an air of unsettling melancholy felt while walking the through the maze of alleys while pondering the lost lives these casket and headstone-looking slabs represent.

In the Information Center below, there are several rooms featuring poignant momentos and photos of those who perished.   In the Room of Names, the names of murdered and missing Jews from all over Europe are projected onto the walls one at a time while a brief history is read. Currently there are 1000 brief biographies read.

It would take six years, seven months and 27 days for each to name to be read with their short description of their lives and demise.

 

 

Warning: the next section contains graphic and disturbing images.  

Dachau, Bavaria

I can still remember the heaviness I felt as I lay in my hotel room in Munich, contemplating whether I should join my husband Glen on the tour to the Dachau Concentration Camp 10 miles away.   This was my first time to visit a place where mass murders were carried out.

But I knew I had to go, because I wanted to see for my own eyes the spot where it truly happened. Because by that time I knew that despicable acts like those were still happening around the world. Because I needed to keep that sickening feeling in my stomach, so that I would never be comfortable with and would always condemn such horrible acts. And so I went.

The infamous sign Arbeit macht frei – “work makes (you) free” – still stood there, counting the people the passed through the gates.   It was the same words that greeted the Jews and other victims of the Holocaust as they were herded in Nazi concentration camps.

The experience of walking through a place of such suffering is one that never leaves you.   The buildings, rooms, photographs, displays and signs all tell the story of the horrors committed that sometimes too incredible to believe. But they were all real. They were all true.

 

 

 

 

 

Recently, I met a gentleman who was part of the US Army’s 45^th Infantry Division that liberated Dachau from the Nazis.  He saw the dead bodies piled up and the emaciated survivors.   He said it was the sort of thing you never forget. I had so many questions that I wanted to ask him about this experience, but I could tell it wasn’t a topic he wanted to linger on.

 

 

Srebrenica Massacre Museum, Sarajevo

It was early evening in Sarajevo and we were looking for places to see before calling it a night. We had spent the day learning about the devastating impact of the Bosnian War in the early 1990s had on the city. We were drawn to a sign that read Gallery 11/7/95. Intrigued, we rode the small elevator and stepped into a modern space with thousands of photos of men and young boys (and a few women) on the walls.

Over the next hour, I learned about the forced transfer of over 25,000 women, children and elderly, the rape of many women and the massacre of 8,372 people by the Bosnian Serb Army. This all happened in July 1995 in what was supposed to be a United Nations identified “safe area” of Srebrenica.  This has come to be known at the Srebrenica Genocide.

 

Visiting sites, memorials and museums like these add a dimension to my travels that leave me rattled, disturbed and changed.  It has made learning about the history of the places I visit that much more meaningful and evocative.   It makes me more aware that evil is real and still present in the world.

Today, strife, persecution and injustices happening in large scales such as in Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Nigeria, Cameroon and other areas.  On top of that, other forms of human rights abuse and state sanctioned violence against its people continue to be rampant.  As travelers and citizens of the world, we are obligated to educate ourselves about what’s happening around us, to stand up against oppressors, and to support those who seek to end violence and injustice.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ~ George Santayana