Unfortunately Sin

“Unfortunately”, a word I use far too much, is a word that comes to mind when contemplating my time at the Holocaust Museum and Sachsenhausen Concentration camp. ‘Unfortunately’ hardly covers the horrific acts that the Nazis committed.

When looking back at history some of the most notable events have been tragedies: The Holocaust, genocides, famines, wars, and slavery. We study these events extensively, but time and time again we fall prey to them. It is hard to believe Hitler, Mao, Stalin, etc. were uneducated in history, so unfortunately for some reason they decided to repeat it. I like to think that museums and memorials help delay the atrocities of human nature, even if only a little. I witnessed people from many tongues, tribes, and nations at  these locations and I hope it drives them to look deeper into themselves and their own condition.

The Holocaust consists of hundreds of rectangular blocks that are meant to represent the Jews murdered during the Nazi regime.

The infamous line, “Arbeit macht Frei (‘Work will liberate’, or ‘work make free’)” stands at the gate of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where Jews (and others) were never given freedom through work.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *