Should Auschwitz be left to decay?

BBC NEWS | Europe | Should Auschwitz be left to decay?

On the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, two experts on Auschwitz argue for and against the idea that the former Nazi death camp should be allowed to crumble away.

Historian Robert Jan Van Pelt says that once the last survivor has died it should be left for nature to reclaim, and eventually forgotten.

But former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, once an inmate, says Auschwitz must be preserved to bear witness to the fate of its victims.

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You can give your answer on the site on top.

 

Blimey....just look at all the historical sites and monuments that would be left to decay and fade away if that was the norm.....

Why shoould Auschwitz be any different. It has a right to be maintained, far more sites without the major interest this site has are being groomed and tended and displayed.
Why single out Auschwitz as one to be let go. And no I'm not implying anything other than its historical importance. Perhaps if its cost at the bottom of all this even if not specific...then the money only has to be asked for by a specialy set up charity. I would say its costs will be paid for for years to come within a week of asking.

 

I think they every WWII site should be saved, I know that won't happen, but that's what I want! Auschwitz should be kept up!

 

If not for the historical significance, then like sunken ships which are categorized as tombs, so should the camps.

 

As one of the worlds leading Holocaust historians, I am shocked that he thinks the place should be "eventually forgotten".

 

X2

 

When I read this the first thing that came to my mind was the final scene of the classic Twilight Zone episode titled Death's Head Revisited. After the former SS officer goes mad, the attending doctor looks around the remains of the camp and asks ""Dachau. Why does it still stand? Why do we keep it standing?"

Rod Serling voices the closing dialogue which seems very appropriate to this current development.

 

it should definately be maintained and kept,as with all ww2 buildings they are a reminder to all generations of the pain and suffering that was andured by everyone during the war.

 

Eventually it will just crumble, have nature reclaim it and not so much be forgotten but become not so easily remembered. There's no halting time after all.

There's plenty of forgotten or lost history, in the UK fragments of it regularly exposed by development or nature, furiously studied only to be lost again shortly after. There's no permanence to it, no matter how bright, dark, wonderful or woeful it might be.

Plus of course times change, as does history. Roman sites in the UK are typically adored now despite the associations with slavery, suffering of the natives and the general barbarity which civilising invaders tend to carry with them.

Perversity is almost built into the passing of time, so there's a slim chance, given enough, time camp sites could, instead of being a memorial to victims, become celebrations of crime.

I think many World War 2 sites would be lucky to have a hundred year life left to them, I'm not delighted at that but there's little any of us can do about it.

 

Celebrations of crime ? I dont agree with you there. But one thing is for sure. As the survivors of the camps or the soldiers who fought the war become history then so do the nastier elements of World War II. Who remembers the Mongols for their ruthless sacking of Baghdad ? Or their extermination of whole cities, no one. Sure its acknowledged but its not reflected in todays society. Of course WWII is a more recent war, with movies an pictures.

Ive never been to a camp (wouldnt mind seeing one) but how noticeable is the erosion ?

 

All well and good to say it should or shouldnt be maintained, im not weighing in on either. Its a historic place and whoever wants to pay for people to maintain it, probably ought to be able to do it. However it is located in Poland after all, and perhaps the Poles have their own ideas on the matter.

 

Well I did say a slim chance, but stranger things have happened.

Consider the battle of Hastings, and the resultant Norman rule of England by William le Bâtard. He introduced the feudal system, minimised the power of the English in their own land, fortified the country to put down the many revolts against such rule and introduced French as the language of the ruling elite for some 300 years.

Very much a defeat for the Anglo-Saxons, with no small amount of suffering and killing.

At the ruins of Battle abbey there's a plaque bearing these words;
"This stone has been set in this place to commemorate the fusion of the English and Norman peoples which resulted from the great battle fought here in 1066."

Thus a great defeat brought by criminal endeavour becomes celebrated.

 

NO, Auschwitz should not be left to waste away. It should be kept in the best possible condition, to the contrary. I think it would be stupid and shameful to let it rot.

 

To forget our past is to repeat the same mistakes in the future......


If Auschwitz is left to rot, then more Ahmadinejad's and David Irving's will arise.

 

It should be preserved in order to remember those who were victims of one of man's greatest inhumanities to man, but also to remind us all of the potential for evil that is inherent in man when power is corrupted and democracies abandon responsibility for their political choices. Auschwitz and all concentration camps and similar historical sites are necessary to remind us of the negative side of human nature and what happens to us when we forget to monitor ourselves and those who rule us.

 

Auschwitz have to be saved! It is an sign for the crimes of the Nazis. If it crumble away, it would be an succses for those, who say, there were no holocaust.

 

I watched the tv programme a few years back to commemarate the liberation 60 years on that came from Auschwitz, to say it was moving was an understatement and even watching on tv you could feel somthing almost almost resonating from the camp. It was snowing to, which added to the sombre rememberance of the day we should never forget and if left to fade away there is a danger future generations will do just that.

 

The Battle of Hastings was a defeat for England but also a significant factor in the development of England's strength as a dominant power for hundreds of years. As such the Battle of Hastings is inseparable from the history of England despite the fact that it was a defeat at the hands of an invader.

In contrast, the liberation of Auschwitz was a legal and legitimate exercise of military force to liberate a subjected people. It was a victory for good on the site of a heinous mass-crime.

It is important that we remember both sites because both sites have left an indelible mark on our world and it is essential that we remember the events at the Abbey, at Auschwitz, at Wounded Knee, at Kosovo, Nanking and any of hundreds of other sites because what happened at those sites helped to define who we are today.

Our history is not always pretty. Nevertheless, every monument we preserve helps us to remember both what we were, who we are, and what we can be. Auschwitz must be remembered both for what happened there, and for what did not happen. There are no death camps outside of London or outside of New York. Auschwitz today is both a monument so that we never forget the brutality of man and a tribute to the millions of innocent people who suffered and died as a result of it. It is also, however, evidence of the sacrifices that millions of men and women made to fix the world order and ensure that the death camps were made things of history.

In the end, the good guys won. Auschwitz reminds us of why we need to always strive to be the good guys, because there are always people waiting to be the bad guys.

 

Im not intending to get too far off subject but, since Twlight Zone was mentioned (and i've seen that episode a few times) the same "Concentration Camp set" was also used in at least one COMBAT episode-I don't remember which season it was in-but do remember that the Guest Star for that episode was Richard Jaeckel-who played a German Sergeant-who got captured by Sgt. Saunders and his Squad. Also, some of the Jewish inmates in the Twilight Zone episode-were also in this COMBAT episode.

 

preserve it man