Confronting our Past through a Distant Mirror:
Reflections on the Holocaust as a tool for teaching about Memory and Justice in South Africa
“Artefacts of the People who Became Ash”
Some of the most affecting traces were the
objects left behind.
We saw the personal items victims had with
them. Sentimental possessions—family
photographs and personal items to everyday
accessories like glasses and shoes.
These artefacts—bundled in stacks, piled
impossibly high—were the last traces of
disappeared worlds. But among these were
things that had helped people retain their
humanity such as artwork and games made of
found objects.
In a building in Auschwitz-Birkenau, there is a display of photographs found in the suitcases of those imprisoned and killed at the camp. The photographs show the lives and loves of the prisoners before the Holocaust. They also point to what was important to those being deported; forced to pack for an unknown destination, people filled their suitcases with personal items and memories. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
An artifact of Germany’s attempt to repurpose infrastructures of its Nazi past. Once a ‘fire-bowl’ lighting the grandstand at the Nazi Rally ground in Nuremberg, after the war it was repainted and used as a splash pool at a waterpark. It now stands abandoned.
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer 
“Notice the word ‘Judenfrei’ (‘free of Jews’)
next to Estonia; a region where, in 1941,
Jews who had not managed to flee were
murdered.
This document also highlights the
obsessional nature of the Nazi genocide of
the Jews: even countries with small Jewish
populations (for example, 200 Jews in
Albania) are recorded.”
Ronel KoekemoerStatistics relating to the numbers of Jews in Europe written by Adolph Eichmann and formed part of Reinhard Heydrich’s presentation to the attendees of the Wannsee conference in January 1942. Photo: Auswärtiges Amt – Politisches Archiv
Chelmno was the first Nazi Death Camp— but many people know very little about it. So few people know about Chelmno was because nearly all of its prisoners had been murdered and there were very few to testify about the atrocities there.
“The door opens and a boy in a striped suit comes in … we throng around him with a flood of questions which till now we had asked each other in vain…I asked him (with an ingenuousness that only a few days later already seemed incredible to me) if at least they would give us back our tooth brushes. He did not laugh, but with his face animated by fierce contempt, he threw at me … this refrain that we hear repeated by everyone: you are not at home, this is not a sanitorium, the only exit is by way of the chimney”.
Primo Levi, If this is a ManLeft: Toothbrush and toothpaste tube found at the Chelmno killing site “The door opens and a boy in a striped suit comes in … we throng around him with a flood of questions which till now we had asked each other in vain…I asked him (with an ingenuousness that only a few days later already seemed incredible to me) if at least they would give us back our tooth brushes. He did not laugh, but with his face animated by fierce contempt, he threw at me … this refrain that we hear repeated by everyone: you are not at home, this is not a sanitorium, the only exit is by way of the chimney”.
Photos: Ronel Koekemoer
Red: Political Prisoners
Green: Criminals
Purple: Jehovah’s Witnesses
Pink: Homosexuals
Black: Asocial (this included Roma
and Sinti, who at some camps, wore a
Brown triangle), homeless people and
beggars, among others.
“Note that in the case of Jews, the chart
details certain ‘double triangles’. The
inverted triangle forming the Star of
David, highlights that not only were Jews
demarcated by a yellow triangle, but could
also be further criminalised by belonging to
one of the other groups.”
Ronel KoekemoerA chart detailing the triangle markers for the classification of the different types of prisoners in concentration camps.Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“I felt I could see a piece of each person left
over in the aftermath of the nightmare they
endured. A physical representation of the life
that each object once formed part of.”
Reon van der MerweImage of a passbook of one of the blind workers who were saved by working at Otto Weidt’s factory in Berlin.Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“Another kind of artefact we encountered were the remains of infrastructure crucial to the Holocaust”
Ronel KoekemoerThis cattle truck is housed at the old Radegast station, which saw the deportation of Jews from the Lodz Ghetto to the Death Camps during Operation Reinhard. Photo: Ayanda Nxusani
“These artifacts were also evidence of how the Nazi’s tried to reduce complex individuals into singular identities
demarcated by prison uniforms and coloured cloth triangles.”
Ronel KoekemoerA Polish Political Prisoner’s uniform on display at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial Site Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“Important Notice! All clothes to be left here. With the exception of money, valuables, documents, and shoes, all other items should be left with your clothes. Keep careful hold of your
money, documents, and valuables before depositing them at the window. Shoes are to be tied together and left in the designated area. When completely undressed, go in together for showering
and receiving inhalant”.
Translation from German to EnglishImage of a Nazi sign at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“The Remah Synagoguee visit [highlighted that] victims of violent antisemitism were previously living, breathing human beings who observed very human rituals such as the burial of their
loved ones.”
Langa TwalaPhotographed during the Remah Synagogue visit.
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“Scanning the plaques that
lined the walled memorial,
tears heated my face in spite of
the whipping winds. My feet
became heavy, weighted by the
terror that must have filled the
people to whom these names
belonged: my heart burdened
by the grief of thousands of
families.
‘In memory of our family and
all those who were murdered
here. And in memory of our
father who mourned them the
rest of his life.’ ”
Nicole JonesA memorial at the Chelmno forest where the bodies of those murdered in gas vans were burned and their ashes scattered.Photo: Emmanuel Santos
“A chilling artefact for me were the material things the
perpetrators collected and left behind: the massive Nazi
documentation building offered a glimpse of the gruesome and grandiose vision of Nazi European domination”
Ronel KoekemoerWe visited the Nazi Documentation Centre in Nuremburg which is housed in the north wing of the Nazi Congress Hall. Inspired by the Colosseum, the Hall was intended to be a congress centre for the Nazi Party. It was never finished and, in this picture, the ruins of the ‘Nazi Colosseum’ can be seen. Photo: Kuhle Mnisi
“There is contention over the narrative that Poland wants to own and release to the world. Responsibility for the exacted violence is said to be unfairly placed on Polish people or officials of that
time who were victims of circumstance. [We saw this] at the Radegast Memorial when a young Polish tour guide refused to name Poles as perpetrators of mass killings and racial hatred.”
Langa TwalaSymbolic headstones at the Radegast Memorial in Lodz, Poland.
Photo: Muziwakithu Maseko.
“The most startling realisation was that the items on display
were only a fraction of the possessions consumed by the
Nazi death economy. Every part of the individual human
being became a productive resource, from repurposed items
used in German industry to the hair of women used for
textiles.”
Langa TwalaProsthetics stolen from victims at Auschwitz-Birkenau Photo: Muziwakithu Maseko
“It’s one thing to see the numbers of the dead on pages of history books, but seeing the sheer amount of things left behind—used to end so many lives—left me reeling at the scale of the genocide.”
Ronel KoekemoerCanisters of Zyklon-B gas on display at Auschwitz Museum and Memorial Site. Photo: Muziwakithu Maseko
“Among the artefacts in museums were things that helped people retain their humanity such as artwork and games made of found objects.”
Ronel KoekemoerA checkers/chess set belonging to one of the prisoners at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
A collection of artefacts at the Chelmno Death Camp.
Photo: Langa Twala 
“Visiting Wannsee House reminded me of how the highest ranked in a regime are comfortably sheltered from the reality of the horrors they have created, much like that of South Africa during Apartheid.”
Cassandra Da CruzHouse of the Wannsee Conference, near Berlin. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
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Some of the most affecting traces were the
objects left behind.
We saw the personal items victims had with
them. Sentimental possessions—family
photographs and personal items to everyday
accessories like glasses and shoes.
These artefacts—bundled in stacks, piled
impossibly high—were the last traces of
disappeared worlds. But among these were
things that had helped people retain their
humanity such as artwork and games made of
found objects.
In a building in Auschwitz-Birkenau, there is a display of photographs found in the suitcases of those imprisoned and killed at the camp. The photographs show the lives and loves of the prisoners before the Holocaust. They also point to what was important to those being deported; forced to pack for an unknown destination, people filled their suitcases with personal items and memories. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
An artifact of Germany’s attempt to repurpose infrastructures of its Nazi past. Once a ‘fire-bowl’ lighting the grandstand at the Nazi Rally ground in Nuremberg, after the war it was repainted and used as a splash pool at a waterpark. It now stands abandoned.
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“Notice the word ‘Judenfrei’ (‘free of Jews’)
next to Estonia; a region where, in 1941,
Jews who had not managed to flee were
murdered.
This document also highlights the
obsessional nature of the Nazi genocide of
the Jews: even countries with small Jewish
populations (for example, 200 Jews in
Albania) are recorded.”
Ronel KoekemoerStatistics relating to the numbers of Jews in Europe written by Adolph Eichmann and formed part of Reinhard Heydrich’s presentation to the attendees of the Wannsee conference in January 1942. Photo: Auswärtiges Amt – Politisches Archiv
“The door opens and a boy in a striped suit comes in … we
throng around him with a flood of questions which till
now we had asked each other in vain…I asked him (with an ingenuousness that only a few days later already seemed
incredible to me) if at least they would give us back our tooth
brushes. He did not laugh, but with his face animated by fierce
contempt, he threw at me … this refrain that we hear repeated by
everyone: you are not at home, this is not a sanitorium, the only
exit is by way of the chimney”.
Primo Levi, If this is a ManChelmno was the first Nazi Death Camp— but many people know very little about it. So few people know about Chelmno was because nearly all of its prisoners had been murdered and there were very few to testify about the atrocities there. 
Toothbrush and toothpaste tube found at the
Chelmno killing site
Photos: Ronel Koekemoer 
Red: Political Prisoners
Green: Criminals
Purple: Jehovah’s Witnesses
Pink: Homosexuals
Black: Asocial (this included Roma
and Sinti, who at some camps, wore a
Brown triangle), homeless people and
beggars, among others.
“Note that in the case of Jews, the chart
details certain ‘double triangles’. The
inverted triangle forming the Star of
David, highlights that not only were Jews
demarcated by a yellow triangle, but could
also be further criminalised by belonging to
one of the other groups.”
Ronel KoekemoerA chart detailing the triangle markers for the classification of the different types of prisoners in concentration camps.Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“I felt I could see a piece of each person left
over in the aftermath of the nightmare they
endured. A physical representation of the life
that each object once formed part of.”
Reon van der MerweImage of a passbook of one of the blind workers who were saved by working at Otto Weidt’s factory in Berlin.Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“Another kind of artefact we encountered were the remains of infrastructure crucial to the Holocaust”
Ronel KoekemoerThis cattle truck is housed at the old Radegast station, which saw the deportation of Jews from the Lodz Ghetto to the Death Camps during Operation Reinhard. Photo: Ayanda Nxusani
“These artifacts were also evidence of how the Nazi’s tried to reduce complex individuals into singular identities
demarcated by prison uniforms and coloured cloth triangles.”
Ronel KoekemoerA Polish Political Prisoner’s uniform on display at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial Site Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“Important Notice! All clothes to be left here. With the exception of money, valuables, documents, and shoes, all other items should be left with your clothes. Keep careful hold of your
money, documents, and valuables before depositing them at the window. Shoes are to be tied together and left in the designated area. When completely undressed, go in together for showering
and receiving inhalant”.
Translation from German to EnglishImage of a Nazi sign at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“The Rama synagogue visit [highlighted that] victims of violent antisemitism were previously living, breathing human beings who observed very human rituals such as the burial of their
loved ones.”
Langa TwalaPhotographed during the Rama Synagogue visit. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“Scanning the plaques that
lined the walled memorial,
tears heated my face in spite of
the whipping winds. My feet
became heavy, weighted by the
terror that must have filled the
people to whom these names
belonged: my heart burdened
by the grief of thousands of
families.
‘In memory of our family and
all those who were murdered
here. And in memory of our
father who mourned them the
rest of his life.’ ”
Nicole JonesA memorial at the Chelmno forest where the bodies of those murdered in gas vans were burned and their ashes scattered.Photo: Emmanuel Santos
“A chilling artefact for me were the material things the
perpetrators collected and left behind: the massive Nazi
documentation building offered a glimpse of the gruesome and grandiose vision of Nazi European domination”
Ronel KoekemoerWe visited the Nazi Documentation Centre in Nuremburg which is housed in the north wing of the Nazi Congress Hall. Inspired by the Colosseum, the Hall was intended to be a congress centre for the Nazi Party. It was never finished and, in this picture, the ruins of the ‘Nazi Colosseum’ can be seen. Photo: Kuhle Mnisi
“There is contention over the narrative that Poland wants to own and release to the world. Responsibility for the exacted violence is said to be unfairly placed on Polish people or officials of that
time who were victims of circumstance. [We saw this] at the Radegast Memorial when a young Polish tour guide refused to name Poles as perpetrators of mass killings and racial hatred.”
Langa TwalaThe train at Radegast Memorial in Lodz, Poland. Photo:Ayanda Nxusani
“The most startling realisation was that the items on display
were only a fraction of the possessions consumed by the
Nazi death economy. Every part of the individual human
being became a productive resource, from repurposed items
used in German industry to the hair of women used for
textiles.”
Langa TwalaProsthetics stolen from victims at Auschwitz-Birkenau Photo: Muziwakithu Maseko
“It’s one thing to see the numbers of the dead on pages of history books, but seeing the sheer amount of things left behind—used to end so many lives—left me reeling at the scale of the genocide.”
Ronel KoekemoerCanisters of Zyklon-B gas on display at Auschwitz Museum and Memorial Site. Photo: Muziwakithu Maseko
“Among the artefacts in museums were things that helped people retain their humanity such as artwork and games made of found objects.”
Ronel KoekemoerA checkers/chess set belonging to one of the prisoners at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
A collection of artefacts at the Chelmno Death Camp.
Photo: Langa Twala 
“Visiting Wannsee House reminded me of how the highest ranked in a regime are comfortably sheltered from the reality of the horrors they have created, much like that of South Africa during Apartheid.”
Cassandra Da CruzHouse of the Wannsee Conference, near Berlin. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
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