5th photo down (the one with the tour guide in it), photo cred goes to Jill Avendano Breendonk Concentration Camp was a tour I was really excited for. For the longest time it's been a goal of mine to visit Auschwitz in Austria, so it has been a long time interest. It may seem slightly morbid, but I am fascinated by the idea that such a tragedy happened to any human being, and was also inflicted by human beings. Their patterns of thought and behavior were so outside of the norm. It is beyond my comprehension that psychologically this crime seemed justified for Nazis. Hitler had believed in one true race (the Aryan race), and all others were below that. He persecuted Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, the handicapped, and Jehovah's witnesses. His perception for each of the groups was based off of stereotyping, primacy, possibly recency because of the economic standings at the time, perceptual set, egocentrism, and negativity. The Holocaust was one of the worst hate crimes ever committed, with evidence of the most discriminatory acts. Elements of Intercultural Communication states that "discrimination may range from very subtle nonverbal, to verbal insults and exclusion from job or other economic opportunities, to physical violence and systematic elimination of the group, or genocide." Each one of the discriminated groups experienced every form mentioned, and ultimately led to the worst. Going into the Kaserne Dossin Museum I expected a couple hour guided tour like we usually do. It would be about the Holocaust. Other than that I didn't assume much, or expect much more. Our first stop was at Breendonk. Breendonk wasn't a concentration or extermination camp, but rather more of an internment camp, or holding camp. However, that does not mean the people thrown into this camp weren't subject to harsh conditions, hard labor, or death. They definitely were. This was just supposed to be the camp they were held at until they were ultimately transported to a concentration or extermination camp. All around the area there were still barbed-wire fences up. I remember on the front gate they had a sign that said "HALT!" and then in German stated that anyone who trespasses will be shot immediately. It was also a cold and rainy day, adding to this somber experience. We walked through their small museum until our tour guide showed up. When the tour started we were all very excited that our tour guide was fun. We haven't yet had someone lead a tour so great. He also had taken a very hands on approach by often yelling at us in German. I thought it was really cool, and helped us engage more/ relate to how the men, women, and children thrown into that camp might have felt. They didn't understand German either, but they were constantly getting yelled at, interrogated, and persecuted in this harsh language. We were shown all over the camp. The first room we saw was what they called the "casino room." That was where the German soldiers and SS officers would hang out and drink. We were then able to go see the memorial they built in a room right next to it. That is shown in my fourth photo. It has all 3500 individuals who had ever been imprisoned in Breendonk. Above their names were the names of each concentration camp they could have been sent to afterward. Our tour guide walked us threw the kitchens, showed us the building they used for official questioning, walked us through the very halls these people suffered in. There was one of the bedrooms lined with beds we were able to see. While the beds had all been redone, the tables and chairs at the end of the room were original. We sat on the exact seats they did, with the table they ate at. I think when he told us that I took a step back. That struck this reality in me that I hadn't ever felt before. At the same time he was explaining how most of them got sick, how they couldn't use the restrooms but twice a day when they were allotted that time, how they had to clean up each other's feces from the ground, and how they didn't get much of anything to eat or drink. These people suffered immensely, and were put in such disgusting living conditions. From that room it only got worse. He showed us the small prison room where the soldiers would put these people if they did anything they weren't supposed to be doing. They would have to stay in there for however long the soldiers decided. After that we saw coffins that had never been used, then walked into a sort of hidden room with a long hall. This was the "interrogation room." Really it was just a torture chamber. They would tie up the people and hang them from their wrists. As they curled their bodies with pain, the soldiers would drop their shins onto those wooden triangles on the ground. There were metal tools they used to burn them in sensitive areas, but they couldn't hide that for long so they quickly changed that part to electrocution. Remember, these camps were being monitored (to a point anyway), so the Germans couldn't have any physical evidence like burns on the people's bodies. None of the stuff in that room is original for that exact reason. When the Germans left they took anything like that with them. They reconstructed the room based off of what survivors had described it to look like. The details shared with us from that room sent chills down your spine. From there we saw the restrooms they used with the terrible toilets in the ground, the community showers they used, and then were walked around to an execution area. It was outside an rather small. There were posts lined up along one side where the soldiers would order people to stand, and then shoot them. On another side was where they would hang people. This area altogether was used to execute individuals the Germans deemed "useless" in the camp, too young, too old, etc. The last thing we saw after that was one of the train cars used at the time to transport these people in. Walking through this tour and getting the first-hand visuals was something I'll never forget. It was such an intimate glimpse at was these people went through. Later we went to Kaserne Dossin Museum. It was dedicated to the Holocaust and all of the individuals that suffered through it. There was a memorial museum across the street that was part of it, but the rest was more of the detailed timeline through history. We went into the memorial first since we had time before our tour started. I wasn't prepared for the impact it would have on me, especially after having walked through Breendonk. The upstairs area was fine, what I had expected it to be. They had some statistics, a dedicated art piece, and some artifacts in the front room. One of those artifacts was the little doll next to a photograph in one of my photos. Downstairs, the first area you walk into is called "Names." There are 28 seats spread evenly throughout the brick-walled room. There are small whispers echoing. Each seat had a transport number on it and a date. I later found out that the date was when that specific transport was sent out from the Dossin baracks. Anyway, I sat down on one of these seats, and above my head on the ceiling is a speaker. I began to hear name after name after name. My heart beat faster and I'm not sure what came over me. I started to just cry. Even writing about it now brings back that feeling, and brings tears to my eyes. It left this impact on me that I won't ever forget. There was a deep sadness in my chest and a sickness in my stomach, mourning for these individuals that history has taught most of which didn't live. Each transport had hundreds of men, women, and children. The seat I sat down on was transport 8. There were 1000 individuals sent out. The names I was hearing were of each one of them in a repeating loop. Altogether, 25,482 Jews and 352 gypsies were deported from the Dossin baracks. https://www.kazernedossin.eu/EN/Museum-Memoriaal/Memoriaal/Namen The tour through the museum itself was guided. The lady was quite boring and skipped around a lot. She hit the basic information that I don't think any of which was new to me.
1 Comment
Maggie
7/9/2017 06:51:20 am
Wow! I was researching on Breendonk and your weebly appeared. Since I will be doing one also I found it interesting to see what someone had to say about it. Great job! You left me wanting more! I'm excited to go tomorrow. Leave a Reply. |