A Journey Through the Holocaust by Tony Bluejacket Southern Methodist University Embrey Human Rights 12
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Dark Tourism: A Journey Through The Holocaust By Tony BlueJacket Southern Methodist University Embrey Human Rights 12 2 Majdanek Concentration/Death Camp – Lublin – Poland December 25th 2014 – Photo by Tony BlueJacket “Dark Tourism: A Journey Through The Holocaust” The Nazi Holocaust of World War II (WWII) remains as one the there to feel them, to immerse ourselves—the cold, the sorrow, darkest eras in human history. It is estimated that anywhere from the pain, the hell, and the darkness—dark tourism. between 6 and 10 million Jews had their lives stolen from them, bringing a th th Day 1&2 - December 18 -19 , 2014: Warsaw 27-century diaspora to its knees, and the world would never be the same. This paper attempts to bring an ethnographic record through a cold “Today I left my home on a rainy Texas winter day in December experience of my travels throughout Poland (Appendix 1) with Dallas Ft-Worth to officially begin my journey that would the Southern Methodist Universities (SMU) Embrey Human Rights take me three flights bound for Warsaw, Poland by way of Frankfurt, and Berlin Germany. I am traveling alone program visiting various Holocaust sites, camps, and memorials, together on the first leg of this trip, and I realize as I arrive with the historical context of each. safely—bags in tow—in Warsaw that this is the farthest I have ever been from home—some 6,000 miles. I have Dark tourism is a term that has been used in both the academic, another day in Warsaw before connecting with my group and scientific communities to describe an old but recently renewed on the edge of Warsaw’s Old Town district. It’s beautiful phenomenon of traveling to sites that have a history of tragedy, and here. The architecture is absolutely stunning, and it is death. It is not simply a destination rather, but also a mindset and speaks not near as cold as I first imagined. It’s Christmas season to the motives of the traveler. In December of 2014, a group of Southern and there are lights at every turn. This is probably the hardest time in my life, and being alone is a true test of Methodist University students, faculty, and members of the community my resilience and determination. I feel humble in all set out on cold dark journey through Poland’s many Holocaust sites things, and I am blessed.” forgoing any kind of familiar Christmas holiday with friends or family. We were not there just to see the sites, and learn about them, but we were 3 The purpose of our trip was to visit the memorials, sites, and locations of as st many Nazi Holocaust sites in Poland to commemorate, research, and Day 3 - December 21 , 2014: Chelmno remember the atrocities of WWII. The first day that I was able to meet with my group from the Southern Methodist University--lead by the Director of “Today the trip took on the reality one may or may not the Embrey Human Rights program, Dr. Rick Halperin--would officially be the have expected. We boarded the bus around 9:00am in groups second trip day, but my first. The first destination for my itinerary Warsaw and set of for Radegast [Train] Station. We would be Radegast (Radogoszcz) Train Station around two hours from arrived at the station in about 2 hours. This isn’t a place Warsaw, and part of the Lodz ghettos system. From there we would travel to many have heard about, and I wasn’t sure what to Chelmno Extermination Camp. expect when we got there. Radegast Station was responsible for transporting Jews, and Roma to Chelmno Radegast Train Station is perhaps the most important site Extermination Camp. Standing inside the cattle boxcars connected with the Lodz Ghetto in Poland during WWII. Radegast is the train staring through the barbed wire adorned windows I station from which tens of thousand of Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), and Jews could not help but imagine the horror of the victims that were transported to labor, concentration, and extermination/death camps— were herded in by force--large groups up to 32 at a time. including Chelmno Extermination Camp. Starting in 1940 with the sealing off It was chilling. All the faces of our group turned somber of the Lodz ghetto, Radegast was used to ship supplies, food, and fuel to and we boarded the bus to Chelmno. The bus was quiet. support the production of shoes, clothes, and Nazi military uniforms. Also in If we didn’t know before, we certainly knew now of the 1940, the station was used to systematically transport Jews to labor camps in long dark road ahead of us. The feelings and excitement the surrounding region. Thousands upon thousands of Jews were later of being in a new country are now officially gone, and for escorted from Radegast to Chelmno extermination camp, and from the us, our emotional journey has begun as we tour a newly spring of 1942 to only the fall of 1942 alone, it is estimated that some 70,000 built museum at the Palace [Chelmno]. The showers that were sent to their deaths from this station. Most of the people unfortunate once stood where are standing have long since been to go through Radegast never lived to tell the story. It is reported that during destroyed, but there are piles of glasses, shoes, and the last transports some 70,000 people were escorted to Auschwitz, and very other valuables that make the heart heavy, and put a few would survive. (Zyskind-Web) personal touch on the many stories we have heard. We arrive at Chelmno [Forest] and it starts to rain, it’s cold, A few hours north of the Radegast Train Station is Chelmno-nad- but still bearable—still nothing like what I had expected. Nerem, the site of the Chelmno Extermination Camp. The Chelmno We walk past the big monument maybe half of a mile to Extermination Camp is one of the first mass extermination camps that the where a field opens up. The filed is about 300 yards total Nazi’s used gassing as a method of systematically killing people in large and contains large boxed out sections to outlined where numbers. It was specifically chosen for its out of sight location. According to the bodies of the victims were buried and dumped. My the London Jewish Cultural Center, it is thought that an around 360,000 thoughts turned to a movie I had seen where I remember thousand Jews were taken to Chelmno and murdered. The victims would the Jewish workers who were forced to burry the bodies arrive at the “Palace,” a large manor house where Nazis worked in disguise. being shot at the end of the day and thrown in with the On the premise of being provided food, and good work, they were stripped others. How can the world be so cold?” of all their possessions, undressed, and funneled through a show system write into the gas vans. From there they were driven about 10 miles to the forest in gas killing vans, and dumped at a burial site in Chelmno. The first The following day our travels take us some 80 miles wave of killings took place on December 8th, 1941 and continued through northeast of Warsaw to the Treblinka Extermination Camp. 1942. In 1943 Chelmno Extermination Camp would temporarily suspend Treblinka was built in correlation with Operation Reinhard (The operations because most of the Jews in the area—accept in Lodz--had Final Solution) in July of 1942. The extermination camp is hidden already been exterminated. It would later be opened back up to proceed in a dense forest rural area, and its soul design is for the purpose operations for the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto in 1944, and by September of systematic, cost effective mass-murder. The only camp of that same year the Nazis destroyed Chelmno trying to hide all of the quarters that existed at Treblinka were for the few guards that evidence. (LJCC-Web) were housed there--consisting of about 30 SS officers, and 120 soldiers from the Ukraine. (US-HMM-Web) The Nazi’s employed the use Sonderkommandos for most of the horrifying work at Treblinka. The Sonderkommandos were Jews who were ordered to carry out a variety of tasks involving the mass murder of Jews including; handling the possessions/clothes of prisoners sent for extermination, cleaning out the cattle cars, disposing of the corps, and later on in attempt to hide the evidence, the Nazi’s ordered them to exhume the bodies for cremation. The Sonderkommandos would meet the same fate and were replaced every few weeks. (LJCC-Web) In total it estimated that nearly 950,000 people had their lives stolen from them at the Treblinka Extermination Camp. The numbers are mind numbing, and especially when considering how many, and how fast. In merely a ten-month time span form July 1942, to April 1943, nearly 876,000 people were murdered— almost 25,000 per week. To assist in the liquidation of the 12 4 “....you can feel how far away from the world we are in this place. It is an isolating feeling—it feels like hell. We must never forget....” Warsaw Ghetto, it is estimated that approximately 254,000 Jews Hanukkah Menorah at the top, and is surrounded by a from the Warsaw Ghetto along with 112,000 from the Warsaw chilling site of large jagged rock stones. The texture of it is area, were all murdered at Treblinka in just three months in 1943.