Trains to Life – Trains to Death

How do we decide what is and is not appropriate behaviour when interacting with sites of memory such as the memorial “Trains to Life – Trains to Death,” which tells the story of Jewish children escaping Nazi Germany, and others who were deported to death camps? Who are we, as outside academics, to judge the actions of people we don’t know?

It might appear to some that this child, whose mother is seemingly distracted by something on her phone, is acting inappropriately. Or is it the mother at fault for not watching over her child’s actions? Or is this an innocent example of a child exploring the world around them, a world which includes these memorials so widely across the landscape of the city. What is it like to grow up surrounded by these haunted memories of atrocities done to the children of the past? Do these memorials become just another facet of the architecture of a modern city that people grow complacent toward?

Do memorials exist in an abstract space where people are not allowed to interact with them? Or are memorials meant to be interacted with, touched, vandalised and left to decay over time, like the memory of the event they symbolise? We can, as academics, discuss memorials all we want in our classrooms thousands of miles away and years removed from these places of memory. Still, it is not until one is in these spaces seeing it with one’s own eyes that our preconceived ideas and theories get thrown out the window and the reality of a complicated world replaces it.

Rosenstrasse

Does one assume that teenagers will automatically disrespect a memorial or site of remembrance with the express intention to do so? Here we see teens climbing, sitting and playing with the Rosenstrasse memorial which is dedicated to the German women who protested the Nazis for taking their Jewish husbands into custody in 1943. At first glance, it can seem like these teens are being disrespectful to this site by acting as such, however, upon further investigation, it seemed as if this was not their intention. At least to the individuals we spoke to, they were unaware of the memorials’ origins. They were somewhat apologetic, while also being defensive at the accusations we made about their behaviours.

We assume, when we attempt to correct other people’s behaviours, that we know better and are on some level, morally superior. But what at first glance was teens disrespecting this memorial, was more complicated. How do we then continue to bring this judgement onto people at these sites of memory, while preaching not judging others’ actions? We do not know why these people are here or how they feel about their actions, we only know our thoughts. It should come as no surprise then, when people don’t live up to our impossible standards that they were not aware existed in the first place.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Are people condemned for taking a break on a hot summer day? Am I, as I sit under the shade of a tree, observing others interacting with the site, while sitting on my own stelae, condemned for inappropriate behaviour? This memorial has sat in the heart of Berlin for over 20 years and has become as much part of the makeup of the city as the TV tower or Brandenburg Gate. Would one not expect that due to its centrality in the city and large footprint that Berliners would develop a unique relationship with the memorial that we cannot understand as outsiders? The large presence of tourists also impacts one’s experiences at this site. Do children playing within the stelae break the chain of remembrance or do they show how the world continues to spin even after such a great loss?

A little boy plays on the stelae while his father watches on

The rules for the site ban jumping between the stelae, but they don’t ban sitting on them, and this ban seems more for safety rather than respectability. This father, who watches as his child climbs from stelae to stelae is attentive to make sure his child is unharmed. Children run through the stelae, playing tag or other games while their parents watch on chatting or eating lunch on the outside edges of the memorial. As shocking as these actions could be to our serious academic minds, the reality is that these spaces are not solemn places of remembrance we hold them to be. They are public spaces where people are allowed to act as they wish, whether or not they know the significance of the location or not.

Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered Under National Socialism

Entrance to the Memorial for the Sinti and Roma

This memorial, which is tucked away in the middle of Berlin is blocked away from the rest of the city by walls of glass. Walking up to the memorial, you are presented with a wall of information on the persecution of the Sinti and Roma as well as the process to get them recognized as a victim group of national socialism. A short animated video testimony is also playing on a loop outside the space. Inside, there is the main reflecting pool, surrounded by stones with the names of the locations where the Sinti and Roma were murdered. This space, unlike the other memorials, is quiet. Other than the violin music playing and the faint sounds of construction, no children are running around, no one is sitting having a picnic, and nothing “disrespectful” is happening in this space.

The Memorials Reflection Pool

The sombre feeling that one can experience in this space, as opposed to others, shows us the importance of design in creating these spaces of memory. This memorial, while being in a central location, is isolated away from the city and surrounded by nature. You are forced to interact and reflect on the memorial because it is the only thing within the space to interact with. When you are done with your reflection or observation, you then leave the space behind. This site has clear boundaries, and while the information section is on the outside of the memorial, it too is secluded off to the side of the walking path.

I think that this shows how important design is when getting people to interact with memorial sites. This memorial is only a few blocks away from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, yet how people interaction with the space is so different. This space is clearly labelled, which is not true for a lot of sites we visited. It is also secluded away from the normal activity of the city so people don’t interact with it as often. While you can argue over the pros and cons of its isolation, the visitor behaviour, at least from what I saw, was much more informed and reflective than any other site I visited.

Sachsenhausen

At first glance, one could assume that this concrete slab would be a bench for tired visitors to sit on as they traverse the vast site of the former concentration camp of Sachsenhausen. However, in actuality, it is a grave marker for a mass killing site. You would think that while these people are getting a tour at the site, they must know what they are sitting on, but this is not necessarily true. The signage marking this site has worn off, leaving only the small English translation available. The structure itself is also quite similar in design to that of the actual benches at the site. And, as outside contractors, the tour guides are not associated with the Museum so we don’t know how much training and knowledge they hold. All of this is important in crafting the full story of these tourists, but if you did not dig deeper into the story, you could easily assume that this is simply an act of disrespect. The design of this particular space does not lend to informed reflection like the Sinti and Roma memorial, it works against the visitor in its design by almost disguising itself as a bench. The lack of signage is also an issue as even if a visitor tried to figure out what the structure was, it would not be easy for them to find out. 

Once a member of our group asked them to move, they stood up without a fuss, revealing that they themselves were Jewish visitors. With this discovery, we now have another set of questions. Does that then change the narrative? Do Jewish visitors get a different set of social rules when interacting with these places than non Jewish visitors? And if so why? How do you then police people’s behaviours if different people have different social rules for what is considered appropriate behaviour at these sites? And how does that play into our judgments of people’s actions? If you saw someone taking a selfie at a concentration camp, what would your reaction be if they were a concentration camp survivor or their descendant verse someone with no connection to the Holocaust? Is it possible to police that without assuming peoples ancestors and intentions?

Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum

It would be almost impossible to talk about Holocaust memorialization and visitor attitudes without talking about Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. It is hard to describe the emotional toll this space exudes, and while I always feel a little redundant when I say that I really hated being in this space, I was not expecting the visceral emotional reaction that I had. It was like my body reacted in isolation from my mind and even though I knew that this place did not pose me any danger, my body wanted to get me out of the space as fast as possible. This was something I had never experienced before, and even after a week in Berlin and having some level of preparation before coming to this site, I was completely overwhelmed.

People standing by the train car in Auschwitz-Birkenau

While I was waiting within the grounds of Auschwitz I, I observed the hundreds of other visitors at this site and wondered how I could ever judge them for their actions. The majority of the visitors that I saw were teenagers on school trips, and I was left wondering just how much they knew before coming to this site. I was struck by a memory I have of a history school trip I took in high school. Some of the students were in grade 8, and at that point in the Social Studies curriculum, they had not learned about World War Two yet. So here we are, outside of Amsterdam, at a Canadian Military Cemetery, and these children, who were not prepared in any way for what they were going to experience, just broke down. So then I look back to these students there at Auschwitz, a site that made me, a well informed academic breakdown, and I can’t imagine what they must be feeling. So when I see some teenagers fooling around with their friends, I don’t think of it as disrespectful, I think of it as a way of coping with this traumatic space. 

Płaszów

Monument to the Victims of Fascism in Krakow Soviet Era Monument in Płaszów

While photo might focus on the massive monument the Soviets put up at the site of the former concentration camp of Płaszów, this post is more concerned with the green space at the bottom of the image. The structure sits on top of a small hill, at the bottom of which is a mass grave. This mass grave, like most of the Płaszów site, is unmarked. Płaszów is a public park nowadays, with signage only being added in recent years to label and indicate the history of the space. When we visited the site, the only reason we knew that this space was the site of a mass grave is due to our guide telling us so. Because of this we know that there is a very slim chance that anyone visiting the site would know that this specific patch of green space sits on a mass grave and therefore we afford them more leeway in judging their behaviours. While it felt wrong to watch a man walk his dog over the mass grave, I could not blame him for his actions because I knew that it was unlikely he knew what the space was. Yet at other sites, many of which also lack proper signage, we assume that everyone is informed about the history and knows the proper social behaviour to follow in these spaces. As we saw with the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma, when sites are properly labelled and have clear boundaries, people are more able to interact with these spaces with intent and respect. 

Jewish Ghetto Memorial

This is the Jewish Ghetto Memorial or “Ghetto Heroes Square” in Kraków, which commemmorates those who were forced into the ghetto and murdered. The memorial itself consists of 70 large chairs each representing around 1000 Jewish victims deproted from the ghetto to concentration camps. In this photo, a woman sits on one of the chairs, looking through the back of it, and posing for a photo. Not pictured here is the man off to the left, posing with the woman for a photo a few moments before this photo was taken. How do we interpret this photoshoot? If it were earlier in the trip I would have likely been upset to see this image, thinking that these people were making a mockery of the space. Now however, I am more inclined to try and understand where they might be coming from. Who knows if they are simply tourists who thought that this space was a good photo opportunity, without any knowledge of the place’s significance. Or, they could be descendants of survivors who came here with specific intent to see this, and other, sites and prove that the Nazis did not succeed. Nothing could have prepared me to challenge my academic bias in this way before the trip, but facing them head on in these emotionally charged situations forced me to reevaluate what I consider to be “appropriate” behaviour.

Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice

Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice in Vienna

This is the Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice in Vienna. It commemorates those who were killed desterting the Nazis. This memorial has two unique things happening, the first one is the design of it and the second one is the protest happening at the site. This memorial is designed to be climbed on. Similar to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe it is made up of concrete slabs and in a park space within the centre of the city. However, this memorial requires you to climb on it to see the full extent of its design and meaning. People also casually sit on the different levels to eat lunch and generally hang out. These behaviours are encouraged and do not detract from the Memorials meaning or overall impact to the visitor. The second unique thing happening in this space is the protest by the Grandma’s Against the Right. Once I knew that these women were there protesting against political far-right parties, I was elated to take a photo of them and cheer them on. These women are using the memorial to help their protest both as an example of the dangers of the far right and as a place to sit while they protest. It was not until later that I thought about the double standard I placed on this memorial.

Grandmas Against the Right Protest

These actions did not feel out of place at this memorial, but I am struck with the question of why? If people were meant to climb on the stelae of the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, would that change the feelings surrounding the space to be less focused on our perceptions of people’s disrespect and more about experiencing the space itself. Even without the climbing element, seeing people sitting casually on this memorial did not give that visceral reaction like at the stelae. If we saw a protest, even one we agreed with, like the Grandmas against the right, on the stelae, would we feel the same way as seeing them on this memorial? Both memorials commemorate victims of the Nazi regime, yet the same behaviour feels disrespectful at one but encouraged at the another. 

The different energy which I felt at each site is likely influenced by a number of factors. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was one of the first big memorials we saw on this trip, so our expectations of how to act at a memorial were not yet challenged by our experiences. I also wonder if the specific group being commemorated also influenced our group reactions. I personally felt like spaces which specifically commemorated Jewish victimhood was given more prominence by our group and seemingly “inappropriate” behaviours was more condemned at these sites. With the current state of world politics, I wonder if there is an extra sensitivity around any seemingly anti-Jewish sentiment. I am in no way condoning actual anti-semitism, however, due to the increased vulnerability of the Jewish community, any action, even if no harm is intended, can be seen as disrespectful and anti-semitic. This could explain why the same hostility was not directed toward similar actions at sites not specifically commemorating Jewish victims. This is not only about our group but also includeds a more general sentiment I experienced throughout the trip and readings.

ARCUS – Shadow of a Rainbow

Here is ARCUS, the memorial for homosexuals persecuted under the Nazi regime. Here I am, standing in front of a memorial commemorating the suffering and death of people during the Holocaust, posing for a photo with my friends, doing the very thing I condemned others for. As someone who identifies with the LGBTQ+ community and having done research on the creation of this memorial, I wanted to have a photo of myself with the memorial. To an outsider, my actions could seem disrespectful to the memory of those who died, just as the actions of others seemed disrespectful to me. My actions had more to do with my critique of the memorial itself than the history it represents, but you would not know that unless you asked me to explain.

This is what I think is so important. We can talk about how we should not judge others for their actions, but that is something that we constantly do. I believe that it is important to step back, take a breath, and realise that everyone has different reasons for their actions. We don’t know why anyone is at a particular site of memory, if they have connections to history or if they even know what the site itself represents. It is not fair for us as outside academics to come in with our feelings of moral superiority and judge them on what we think of as disrespectful attitudes when we don’t now the full picture.

Obviously, as with anything, there are exceptions to this rule and people do purposefully disrespect these sites of memory, but those actions are taken with express intent. The average person does not go to these sites with this intent so we should stop condemning them as if they are.