Confronting our Past through a Distant Mirror:

Reflections on the Holocaust as a tool for teaching about Memory and Justice in South Africa

photo by Ayanda Nxusani
The Baggage We Carried
Langa 16
"Artefacts of the People who Became Ash"
Presences & absences
Presences and Absences
contested grounds
Contested Grounds
confronting our past
Confronting our Past through a (Not-So) Distant Mirror
photo by Ayanda Nxusani
The Baggage We Carried
Langa 16
"Artefacts of the People who Became Ash"
Presences & absences
Presences and Absences
contested grounds
Contested Grounds
confronting our past
Confronting our Past through a (Not-So) Distant Mirror

Contested Grounds

We saw in the physical landscape of the concentration camps an ongoing contestation over meaning. Some camps are major tourist attractions, others mournfully quiet for a want of visitors. Visiting these sites highlighted the complex politics of preservation: the presence and absence of camp infrastructure, the way the vegetation is managed or neglected. We were surprised in what we felt and thought
“Arbeit macht frei. The famous inscription so symbolic of Nazi cruelty. The tourist hordes clamoured for the perfect snapshot. A time-stamped memory of psychological cynicism. The weather that day was so apt - terribly cold with a biting wind. Oświęcim seemed a godforsaken place"

Nicole Jones
Auschwitz is an affecting site because of the preservation and reconstruction of the original infrastructure. But the museum element of the camp complicated the way we engaged with site.
Photo: Kuhle Mnisi
Auschwitz-as-museum
Ruins of crematorium and gas chamber III at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
Photo: Langa Twala
Ruins of Crematorium
Memorial Plaque at Auschwitz II-Birkenau
Photo: Langa Twala
Memorial Plaque
Remains of Crematoria I. This is in the same building as the first gas chamber used at Auschwitz I. Gas chamber and crematoria I are the best preserved of the gas chambers at the camp site. This is the only complete gas chamber and crematorium that survives.
Photo: Langa Twala
Remains of Crematorium
Remains of the entrance to gas chamber III at Auschwitz II-Birkenau
Photo: Langa Twala
Ruins of Crematorium
“It led me to wonder how do modern Poles remember the Shoah, is it the remnants of the Soviet message to blame the Nazis alone, are they separate victims of the Germans with no accountability, or do they believe in a holistic view of being both victims and perpetrators?”
Cassandra Da CruzThis towering Soviet-era memorial greets visitors at what remains of the Plaszow Concentration Camp outside Krakow, Poland.

Photo: Mame-Diara Mbaye
Soviet-era Memorial
Memorials set as graves in the Chelmno Forest Site.
Photo: Langa Twala
Soviet-era memorial
“The sheer size of the camp as well as Birkenau and its architecture to fit its purpose gave to mind how calculated the whole operation was for the perpetrators. From the bureaucracy of keeping a count of how many people they murdered to making [some of ] their victims buy their own tickets to their deaths."
Siphosethu SidiniliAuschwitz-Birkenau

Photo: Langa Twala
Auschwitz Birkenau
“Another room that touched me [at Auschwitz] was the room with the drawings of the children. Children of different ages. Some who were born in the ghettos or camps and some who had been uprooted from their homes and placed there for an indefinite period of time. The pictures gave us a glimpse into the children’s minds and what their childhood became like in Auschwitz. We got a sense of how drastically their lives were morphed into a world of violence, fear and terror. Seeing a picture of a corpse drawn by a mere child makes you question how this impacted them psychologically. Another picture was that of birds. And I wondered if it signified their longing for the freedom that the birds had. Or if the birds in the sky were the only positive thing in their world because the world surrounding them was filled with gloom.”
Tshegofatso MasenyaDrawings from children in the camps at an exhibition in Auschwitz I’s Block 27.

Photo: Muziwakithi Maseko
Drawing from children's camp at Auschwitz_2
“They were drawings of birds. Having seen the layout and location of the camp, I realised that birds were most likely the only signs of life from outside the camp the children could ever see. Birds were free to come and go, in a way that the people in the camps were not”
Reon van der MerweDrawings from children in the camps at an exhibition in Auschwitz I’s Block 27.

Photo: Muziwakithi Maseko
Children's drawings from Auschwitz
The memorial at the site of the Plaszow Concentration Camp. Other than the domineering Soviet-Era memorial to the Victims of Fascism and a smaller memorial to the Jewish victims of the camp, little remains of the site where approximately 8,000 people died.
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Memorial
The absence of tourist infrastructure at the site of the Plaszow Concentration Camp stands in stark contrast to the popularity of Auschwitz as a tourist ‘attraction.’

“I found our visit to the Plaszow memorial incredibly stirring – despite the lack of photo-ready structures and camp artefacts. The limestone memorial erected by survivors – the very stone quarried by inmates – meant more to me than the curated camp complexes. The juxtaposition of this with the Soviet-era memorial was my first encounter of the Soviet post-WWII message – which felt cold and empty. It led me to wonder how do modern Poles remember the Shoah, is it the remnants of the Soviet message to blame the Nazis alone, are they separate victims of the Germans with no accountability, or do they believe in a holistic view of being both victims and perpetrators?”


Photo: Ayanda Nxusani
Soviet Memorial
For tour participant Ronel Koekemoer, the contrast between Auschwitz as a tourist destination and Auschwitz as a graveyard and site of murder was deeply unsettling and unexpected. One of the seminars we attended on the tour spoke about the conflict surrounding letting these sites remain/decay as memorials or actively preserving these sites as educational tools.
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Auschwitz graveyard
“My turning point of this trip was the visit to Chelmno in Poland. The emptiness of the place which did not even have buildings or any other tourists on site was the most difficult aspect.”
Kuhle MnisiThe Chelmno forest

Photo: Langa Twala
Chelmno-Forrest
The physical infrastructure of the concentration and death camps is preserved at sites like Auschwitz-Birkenau. These sites are central to Holocaust imagery and memory.
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Auschwitz Birkenau
“The raised tombstone [like memorial] was the only inclination that the ground upon which we stood hadonce been a Jewish cemetery and [then the Plaszow concentration camp site}. As our group crowded onto the small stone Dais, the sorrowful words of our professor filled the space. The emotion evident in his voice spilled into air - the atmosphere taut as sadness overcame us all. As the Hebrew words of prayer swirled around me, my heart understoodwhat my ears could not. I wept for a loss that I had never considered my own.”
Nicole JonesPhotograph of Nicole Jones in front of a memorial to the Jews killed at Plaszow Concentration Camp.

Photo: Langa Twala
Memorial at Plaszlow
Soviet Memorial to the Victims of Fascism at Plaszow Concentration Camp.
Photo: Ayanda Nxusani
Soviet-era Memorial
“The atrocities at Auschwitz happened decades ago but the atmosphere was still heavy. Our visit was on a dark and almost snowy day where the wind bit at any exposed skin. Contemplating the reality that people had to endure these conditions was bone chilling"
Tsegofatso PutoAuschwitz-Birkenau site

Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
preserved guard tower at the camp
"The greenery at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial makes the site naturally beautiful, but it is important to remember that this ‘preserved’ environment is different from what victims and survivors experienced. Upon visiting the camp where she was imprisoned, Kitty Hart remarked “I don’t see grass, just a sea of mud.”
Ronel KoekemoerSachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial

Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Sachsenhausen
“The empty space between the Soviet memorial to the Victims of Fascism and the Memorial to the Jewish Victims of Plaszow. Little remains of the camp infrastructure.”
Ronel KoekemoerThe Soviet Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and the Memorial to the Jewish Victims of Plaszow site.

Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Soviet Memorial
“At camp sites more ‘popular’ with tourists— such as Sachsenhausen in Germany—the physical infrastructure is wellpreserved and much photographed by tourists.”
Ronel KoekemoerSachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial site Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial site
The infamous main gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau which also houses public toilets and a bookshop. The repurposing of camp buildings for tourist needs highlights the unexpected ways Holocaust memory, history, and education interact at these sites.
Photo: Tshegofatso Putu
Main gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau
“Being a tourist at the camp sites was an uncomfortable experience for many. On the one hand, there is an expectation to behave in a certain way so as to respect the place and the events that took place there. But in the era of social media and the spirit of commemoration, there is a desire to take photographs and document the site.”
Ronel KoekemoerThe infamous taunt “Arbeit Macht Frei” – with its false promise that “Work Will Make you Free” -- at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany.

Photo: Ronel Koekemoe
arbeit macht frei gate
“Row after row of barracks-cum-museums [at Auschwitz I] teemed with tourists from all over the world. I found the pace at which we moved through the buildings daunting, despite this being off-peak season”.
Cassandra Da CruzBarracks in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany.

Photo: Ayanda Nxusani
Barracks in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
“Auschwitz, in my eyes, has always been the image of what the Shoah was, however, I quickly learnt that my image of what the Holocaust was barely scratches the surface, especially when you are there in person. It being in winter made it even more surreal and cruel.”
Siphosethu SidiniliWalking towards the infamous gate at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Walking towards the infamous gates of auschwitz

Tshegofatso Masenya:

“No matter how many articles I could have read, nothing could have ever prepared me for what would unfold on the trip. The terror, the horrors and the pure evil that came out of the Nazi regime was something that weighed heavily on me every morning and stayed with me every night.”


Muziwakithu Maseko

“We went to the camps during the beginning of winter in Europe and we were already freezing. This made me imagine how horrendous the weather must have been for the prisoners. Inside temperatures would often go to below freezing.”


Nicole Jones

“[At Plaszow] Sheer nothingness. Only emptiness and erasure. Were it not for the looming Soviet-era memorial and a few others dotting the sparsely wooded hills and fields, Płaszów and the concentration camp it once was would be invisible to the modern eye.”


Kuhle Mnisi

“My turning point of this trip was the visit to Chelmno in Poland. The emptiness of the place which did not even have buildings or any other tourists on site was the most difficult aspect.”

Previous
Next
We saw in the physical landscape of the concentration camps an ongoing contestation over meaning. Some camps are major tourist attractions, others mournfully quiet for a want of visitors. Visiting these sites highlighted the complex politics of preservation: the presence and absence of camp infrastructure, the way the vegetation is managed or neglected. We were surprised in what we felt and thought
Nicole Jones“Arbeit macht frei. The famous inscription so symbolic of Nazi cruelty. The tourist hordes clamoured for the perfect snapshot. A time-stamped memory of psychological cynicism. The weather that day was so apt - terribly cold with a biting wind. Oświęcim seemed a godforsaken place"
Nicole Jones
Auschwitz is an affecting site because of the preservation and reconstruction of the original infrastructure. But the museum element of the camp complicated the way we engaged with site.
Photo: Kuhle Mnisi
two people stand before a map in the museum side of Auschwitz
Ruins of crematorium and gas chamber III at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
Photo: Langa Twala
view of the camps
Memorial Plaque at Auschwitz II-Birkenau
Photo: Langa Twala
Plaque at auschwitz
Remains of Crematoria I. This is in the same building as the first gas chamber used at Auschwitz I. Gas chamber and crematoria I are the best preserved of the gas chambers at the camp site. This is the only complete gas chamber and crematorium that survives.
Photo: Langa Twala
Remains of Crematoria
Remains of the entrance to gas chamber III at Auschwitz II-Birkenau
Photo: Langa Twala
remains of the entrance to gas chamber III
“It led me to wonder how do modern Poles remember the Shoah, is it the remnants of the Soviet message to blame the Nazis alone, are they separate victims of the Germans with no accountability, or do they believe in a holistic view of being both victims and perpetrators?”
Cassandra Da CruzThis towering Soviet-era memorial greets visitors at what remains of the Plaszow Concentration Camp outside Krakow, Poland.

Photo: Mame-Diara Mbaye
Soviet-era memorial outside the remains of Plaszow
Memorials set as graves in the Chelmno Forest Site.
Photo: Langa Twala
memorials set as graves in the Chelmno Forest Site
“My turning point of this trip was the visit to Chelmno in Poland. The emptiness of the place which did not even have buildings or any other tourists on site was the most difficult aspect.”
Kuhle MnisiThe Chelmno forest Photo: Langa Twala
The Chelmno forest
“The sheer size of the camp as well as Birkenau and its architecture to fit its purpose gave to mind how calculated the whole operation was for the perpetrators. From the bureaucracy of keeping a count of how many people they murdered to making [some of ] their victims buy their own tickets to their deaths."
Siphosethu SidiniliAuschwitz-Birkenau

Photo: Langa Twala
Auschwitz-Birkenau
“They were drawings of birds. Having seen the layout and location of the camp, I realised that birds were most likely the only signs of life from outside the camp the children could ever see. Birds were free to come and go, in a way that the people in the camps were not”
Reon van der MerweDrawings from children in the camps at an exhibition in Auschwitz I’s Block 27.

Photo: Muziwakithi Maseko
drawings from children in the camps
“Another room that touched me [at Auschwitz] was the room with the drawings of the children. Children of different ages. Some who were born in the ghettos or camps and some who had been uprooted from their homes and placed there for an indefinite period of time. The pictures gave us a glimpse into the children’s minds and what their childhood became like in Auschwitz. We got a sense of how drastically their lives were morphed into a world of violence, fear and terror. Seeing a picture of a corpse drawn by a mere child makes you question how this impacted them psychologically. Another picture was that of birds. And I wondered if it signified their longing for the freedom that the birds had. Or if the birds in the sky were the only positive thing in their world because the world surrounding them was filled with gloom.”
Tshegofatso MasenyaDrawings from children in the camps at an exhibition in Auschwitz I’s Block 27.

Photo: Muziwakithi Maseko
drawings from children in the camps
The memorial at the site of the Plaszow Concentration Camp. Other than the domineering Soviet-Era memorial to the Victims of Fascism and a smaller memorial to the Jewish victims of the camp, little remains of the site where approximately 8,000 people died.
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
The memorial at the site of the Plaszow Concentration Camp
The absence of tourist infrastructure at the site of the Plaszow Concentration Camp stands in stark contrast to the popularity of Auschwitz as a tourist ‘attraction.’
Photo: Ayanda Nxusani
view of the memorial from afar
For tour participant Ronel Koekemoer, the contrast between Auschwitz as a tourist destination and Auschwitz as a graveyard and site of murder was deeply unsettling and unexpected. One of the seminars we attended on the tour spoke about the conflict surrounding letting these sites remain/decay as memorials or actively preserving these sites as educational tools.
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Auschwitz as a graveyard
“The raised tombstone [like memorial] was the only inclination that the ground upon which we stood hadonce been a Jewish cemetery and [then the Plaszow concentration camp site}. As our group crowded onto the small stone Dais, the sorrowful words of our professor filled the space. The emotion evident in his voice spilled into air - the atmosphere taut as sadness overcame us all. As the Hebrew words of prayer swirled around me, my heart understoodwhat my ears could not. I wept for a loss that I had never considered my own.”
Nicole JonesPhotograph of Nicole Jones in front of a memorial to the Jews killed at Plaszow Concentration Camp.

Photo: Langa Twala
Photograph of Nicole Jones in front of a memorial to the Jews killed at Plaszow Concentration Camp
Soviet Memorial to the Victims of Fascism at Plaszow Concentration Camp.
Photo: Ayanda Nxusani
Soviet Memorial to the Victims of Fascism at Plaszow Concentration Camp
The physical infrastructure of the concentration and death camps is preserved at sites like Auschwitz-Birkenau. These sites are central to Holocaust imagery and memory.
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Preserved infrastructure of the camp
“The atrocities at Auschwitz happened decades ago but the atmosphere was still heavy. Our visit was on a dark and almost snowy day where the wind bit at any exposed skin. Contemplating the reality that people had to endure these conditions was bone chilling"
Tsegofatso PutoAuschwitz-Birkenau site

Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
preserved guard tower at the camp
"The greenery at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial makes the site naturally beautiful, but it is important to remember that this ‘preserved’ environment is different from what victims and survivors experienced. Upon visiting the camp where she was imprisoned, Kitty Hart remarked “I don’t see grass, just a sea of mud.”
Ronel KoekemoerSachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial

Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial
“The empty space between the Soviet memorial to the Victims of Fascism and the Memorial to the Jewish Victims of Plaszow. Little remains of the camp infrastructure.”
Ronel KoekemoerThe Soviet Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and the Memorial to the Jewish Victims of Plaszow site.

Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
The Soviet Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and the Memorial to the Jewish Victims of Plaszow site
“At camp sites more ‘popular’ with tourists— such as Sachsenhausen in Germany—the physical infrastructure is wellpreserved and much photographed by tourists.”
Ronel KoekemoerSachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial site Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial site
The infamous main gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau which also houses public toilets and a bookshop. The repurposing of camp buildings for tourist needs highlights the unexpected ways Holocaust memory, history, and education interact at these sites.
Photo: Tsegofatso Pule
Main gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau
“Being a tourist at the camp sites was an uncomfortable experience for many. On the one hand, there is an expectation to behave in a certain way so as to respect the place and the events that took place there. But in the era of social media and the spirit of commemoration, there is a desire to take photographs and document the site.”
Ronel KoekemoerThe infamous taunt “Arbeit Macht Frei” – with its false promise that “Work Will Make you Free” -- at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany.

Photo: Ronel Koekemoe
arbeit macht frei gate
“Row after row of barracks-cum-museums [at Auschwitz I] teemed with tourists from all over the world. I found the pace at which we moved through the buildings daunting, despite this being off-peak season”.
Cassandra Da CruzBarracks in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany.

Photo: Ayanda Nxusani
Barracks in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
“Auschwitz, in my eyes, has always been the image of what the Shoah was, however, I quickly learnt that my image of what the Holocaust was barely scratches the surface, especially when you are there in person. It being in winter made it even more surreal and cruel.”
Siphosethu SidiniliWalking towards the infamous gate at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
Walking towards the infamous gates of auschwitz

Tshegofatso Masenya:

“No matter how many articles I could have read, nothing could have ever prepared me for what would unfold on the trip. The terror, the horrors and the pure evil that came out of the Nazi regime was something that weighed heavily on me every morning and stayed with me every night.”


Muziwakithu Maseko

“We went to the camps during the beginning of winter in Europe and we were already freezing. This made me imagine how horrendous the weather must have been for the prisoners. Inside temperatures would often go to below freezing.”


Cassandra Da Cruz:

“Row after row of barracks-come-museums [at Auschwitz I] teemed with tourists from all over the world. I found the pace at which we moved through the buildings daunting, despite this being off -peak season”.

“I found our visit to the Plaszow memorial incredibly stirring – despite the lack of photo-ready structures and camp artefacts. The limestone memorial erected by survivors – the very stone quarried by inmates – meant more to me than the curated camp complexes. The juxtaposition of this with the Soviet-era memorial was my first encounter of the Soviet post-WWII message – which felt cold and empty. It led me to wonder how do modern Poles remember the Shoah, is it the remnants of the Soviet message to blame the Nazis alone, are they separate victims of the Germans with no accountability, or do they believe in a holistic view of being both victims and perpetrators?”


Nicole Jones

“[At Plaszow] Sheer nothingness. Only emptiness and erasure. Were it not for the looming Soviet-era memorial and a few others dotting the sparsely wooded hills and fields, Płaszów and the concentration camp it once was would be invisible to the modern eye.”


Kuhle Mnisi

“My turning point of this trip was the visit to Chelmno in Poland. The emptiness of the place which did not even have buildings or any other tourists on site was the most diffi cult aspect.”

Previous
Next