Should Nazi Extermination Camps Be Demolished ....

[naomi24]

.... and holocaust memorial exhibitions abandoned?

Is visiting these places just sick - or is it important to maintain them along with all the evidence they preserve ... lest we forget?

Have you visited such a place and, if so, your thoughts and impressions.

[woofgang]

I do get about it not being a "holiday day out" but can someone expalin to me why it shouldn't be "part of a holiday" or what that even means? I mean people do battlefields tours and take their annual leave to do it....they stay in nice hotels and enjoy evenings out and other leisure activities as part of the tour, they don't spend the whole tour being serious....I mean no its not butlins or a day on the beach but if you don't go as a part of a holiday, how else will you go?

[Zacs-Master]

Well said, Cali.

[Zacs-Master]

We went as part of a city break to Krakow. That’s different to a holiday.

[woofgang]

so city breaks aren't holidays? Why not?

[Baldric]

I don't think they should be demolished, they are a great advert for mans inhumanity to man.

[Zacs-Master]

Because they tend to be more culturally based rather than laying on a beach. They’re usually significantly shorter. We certainly approach them with a different attitude.

[LadyCG]

Zac's post at 11:29 just about sums up Jordy's reasons for his statements on this thread.

I don't know other's reasons for visiting these camps but I certainly don't view them as a tourist attraction. I visited to gain a better understanding of the suffering of the victims and survivors and to pay my respects.

[woofgang]

Zac to me a "holiday" is when you do something other than whatever you normally do. Many many people's holidays do not ever consist of lying on a beach. I do absolutely get that such places should be approached in a spirit of reverence and that they are not tourist attractions in the same way that DisneyLand is but, as I said, I am not sure why people shouldn't go to them as part of a holiday? The other thing of course is that like it or not, local facilities will benefit from providing beds, meals transport and so on to visitors...and again I am not for one moment suggesting that this is......well..... either a good or a bad thing but it is an unavoidable thing.

[237SJ]

Of course you are going to go there as part of a holiday. What else are you going to do - fly up there, visit the camp and fly home?

[naomi24]

I didn’t post this thread for people to start a fight - or to get personal. If anyone wants either of those things go elsewhere and start your own thread. All I want is an interesting discussion here.

[JimF]

LadyCG for best answer!

[Jordyboy9]

Naomi I thought my input to your great thread was okay,then again I realise how stupid and immature I am when I read back when I have stooped to answering comments I should ignore

[sanmac]

Naomi, you did generate an interesting thread which garnered many interesting points of view from numerous posters. It is really, really unfortunate that some people cannot refrain having to resort to disrespectful, scornful name-calling.

[LadyCG]

Out of interest, Naomi, have you been watching Nazi Hunters? It's on Friday nights on the Yesterday channel. It's been fascinating to watch how some former camp detainees were liberated and then dedicated the rest of their lives to tracking down some of the worst and most infamous SS guards, many of whom fled to South American Countries such as Argentina, Brazil, etc.

One such man is Simon Wiesenthal and he's featured in quite a few episodes.

[naomi24]

No, I haven’t seen
That cg.

[waterboatman]

I too visited Belsen when I was stationed in Germany. Everybody should visit one of the preserved camps. Many people do not believe that people can be so evil. Believe me, they can!

The cemetery there is silent. flowers do not grow, they have been planted in the past, they die. Grass and trees are the only things that grow.
There are square mounds of earth with little plaques that say such as '5000 buried here' 15000 buried here. The gas chambers and incinerators are still there.

[waterboatman]

Also, birds do not fly over it, they fly round it.

[Theland]

One of my sons visited Auswitch about two years ago and it left a lasting impression on him. They need to be preserved.

[waterboatman]

I agree TL. They are a monument to man's inhumanity to man.