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- At this point, what do you feel the purpose(s) of concentration camp
visits are?
I still feel the point of visiting concentration camps is to remind
people what actually happened, to make people never forget, so that
something like this can never repeat itself. I really think that it
specifically targets the German population, although I'm sure it has a
large emotional impact on most people that visit it. Buchenwald is a
place where you can learn about the past; it provides a more substantial
lesson then a textbook, which is what I think it is supposed to do.
-How do you feel our visit to Buchenwald compared to our visits of
Holocaust memorials in Berlin? What are the differences between a camp and
memorials?
The visit to Buchenwald was more real in comparison to other
memorials. The memorials were built afterwards, after the damage was done,
in order to absolve Germany from some of its harbored guilt and to honor
the dead. The memorials were plaques or statues or walls that were placed
as symbols of repentence and remorse. Buchenwald is there so no one ever
forgets what happens; the Nazis and Hitler and the atrocious crimes they
committed will never be forgotten. Buchenwald is a structure that took
part in the extermination of thousands of lives, an artifact of the Nazi
era. The memorials, although attempting to portray definite social
messages, do not give off such an emotional impact as the concentration
camp did.
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