Yesterday, though very interesting historically, was also quite sad. My German Politics and Culture class took a trip to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. We learned about the history of the camp, the layout, and we took a guided tour around part of it. It was very sad to approach the landmarks marking the sites of mass grave burials and the old barracks where people starved and died. Unlike the camps in the East (namely, Poland), Bergen-Belsen (near Hanover) was a concentration camp, not a death camp. However, death was an everyday occurrence in the camp. People died everyday from starvation, weakness, and disease. Typhoid was rampant. In fact, Bergen-Belsen is the final resting place for Anne Frank and her sister Margot (both of whom died of typhoid in March 1945 before liberation by the British). In the main camp museum, there was a section dedicated to Anne. I watched a video on women who survived the camp and had been friends with Anne during their period of time spent there. It was interesting to hear about Anne beyond the information found in her diary.
Besides the guided tour and museum experience, I also watched a video on the actual footage of the camp from the 1940s. It was very hard to bear after a while, so I left. It just goes to show you the absolute atrocities human beings are capable of doing to other human beings. The imagery from the video was incredibly graphic, but I am glad I watched what I did while I was actually at the camp. It felt so real (because it was) and I felt more connected to what I was learning because I was actually
there.
I didn't take too many pictures because I didn't want to be disrespectful, but here are a few:
The main entrance to the camp
Class presentation on the camp layout
Walking to the memorial stones
These stones were marked at the time of the camp for a specific barracks. Prisoners would write the name and year of the deceased on the bricks of the barracks where they were housed. It represents that despite the anguish and sadness prevalent, the victims were able to hold onto some aspects of unity and love for each other.
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