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The following is from a tape-recorded interview the day of the visit. -Have you ever visited a concentration camp before? Yes. Buchenwald and Auschwitz. -What are your expectations of the visit today? Since I've been there before, most of my expectations hinge on the behavior of the people we go with, at least that's the most important thing to me. Two people have already asked me if they should bring cameras, and, although I realize it's completely up to them, I would much rather they didn't. You feel so numb there, you feel so dead, and you feel kind of out of your body because it's so horrifying, and the pure human act of reaching into your pocket and pulling out a camera and focusing it and working the shutter is for me too much. And I don't--maybe I'm just selfish--understand how anyone else could do that, too. Plus, [a student] was pointing this out earlier, everyone should experience seeing it, so they can see for themselves a tiny remnant of what happened, and feel for themselves a tiny remnant of what happened, and a picture doesn't capture that. To try to show it to people and be like "this is how it was" is just not appropriate. You should go yourself. And so I'm going to be not upset, but a little disappointed if everyone is taking out cameras and being like "smile in front of the barracks." >> |
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