Confronting our Past through a Distant Mirror:
Reflections on the Holocaust as a tool for teaching about Memory and Justice in South Africa
Presences & Absences
We visited sites of immense violence and unimaginable atrocity. In Krakow, Lodz, Warsaw, Berlin, and Nuremberg we saw a layered past - hulking Soviet-era monuments, the grassroots initiatives of ordinary citizens, abstract modern memorials, cutting edge museums and their ageing forebears - that reflect generations of effort to make sense of tragedy.
And we stumbled across memory (and its failures) in action — a far-right rally at the Brandenburg Gate, and naked racism in Nuremberg. We were struck as much by the presence of these markers as by mournful absences. Empty synagogues, unvisited cemeteries, brass cobblestones reminding us of residents long since dragged away and killed.
“I found the stolpersteine a moving but disturbing tribute to those who died. Their placement on the floor meant that Tali and Adam had to point them out and explain them to us the first time. After that, it was impossible to miss them as we walked through Berlin. Not only did it serve as a reminder of the lives lost, but of the life in those lives that had existed before the horror of the Holocaust.” And we stumbled across memory (and its failures) in action — a far-right rally at the Brandenburg Gate, and naked racism in Nuremberg. We were struck as much by the presence of these markers as by mournful absences. Empty synagogues, unvisited cemeteries, brass cobblestones reminding us of residents long since dragged away and killed.
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism in Berlin. Each day at noon, the triangular pedestal sinks below the water and is brought back to the surface shortly afterwards with a fresh flower.
The triangle is a significant symbol in the history of concentration camps during the Holocaust because the Nazis used different coloured triangles to identify different targeted groups.
Video still: Langa Twala The triangle is a significant symbol in the history of concentration camps during the Holocaust because the Nazis used different coloured triangles to identify different targeted groups.
“Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones”) were evident throughout Berlin.
The evidence of the Holocaust has been memorialised in the pavement. Stoplesteine are stepped on and over by the cities’ residents and tourists, all documenting the rich variety of lives lived in these cities before they were snuffed out by one of history’s most notorious crimes.”
Ronel KoekemoerThese commemorative brass plaques are inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi persecution and are set into the pavement of the last known address where the victims lived.The evidence of the Holocaust has been memorialised in the pavement. Stoplesteine are stepped on and over by the cities’ residents and tourists, all documenting the rich variety of lives lived in these cities before they were snuffed out by one of history’s most notorious crimes.”
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
"One of the most troubling sites for me was the Berlin Track 17 Deportation Memorial at Grunewald railway station. I walked along the platform and read the dates and the numbers of people deported to the different camps. The further along into the war you walk, the fewer and fewer the number of people deported— signifying the ‘success’ of the Nazi project to rid Germany of Jews.”
Ronel Koekemoer Track 17 Deportation Memorial at Grunewald railway station, Berlin Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
"Can memorials exist as just respectable homages to people who died atrociously o will they always inevitably work to serv a political narrative or agenda? Does a memorial serving a particular agenda tarnish the sanctity of remembrance?”
Mame-Diara MbayeMemorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“When we were standing around the Memorial to the Murdered Roma and Sinti, two people carrying Anarchist flags came to look at the memorial. I remember how tense the air around us became until they left. Even if they had just come to visit the memorial, the unease I felt made me realise how fragile these spaces of memory are. It emphasised how we live in a time where the sanctity of these spaces is increasingly threatened by the rise of right-wing, nationalist and fascist ideologies in Europe”.
Ronel KoekemoerThe triangular pedestal at the centre of the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under National Socialism, Berlin.Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“I valued the experience of going to the Polish Uprising Monument and learning about how brave Poles stood up and resisted during a time when they were losing a war. The will of the people to sacrifice themselves for a bigger cause is remarkable and inspiring.”
Muziwakithu MasekoStatue commemorating the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw, Poland. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“In all the cities we visited, it felt as though you could see a shadow of the former life of an integral part of society… It partly felt as though these aspects of the cities were kept as a tourist attraction.”
Cassandra Du CruzThe courtyard which houses The Otto Weidt Workshop for the Blind Museum, where during the Holocaust Weidt employed mostly blind and deaf Jewish workers to try and protect them from deportation.Photo: Langa Twala
"The Berlin Track 17 Deportation Memorial speaks to the obsessive nature of Nazi prosecution. Even in the period when it was clear that the war was lost and the Germans were facing huge shortages of transport, these trains left nearly every day. Where once they carried over a thousand Jews a day, some of the later transports carried as few as eighteen."
Ronel KoekemoerThe Track 17 Deportation Memorial consists of the platform and railway track that was used for the deportation. Each sleeper is inscribed with details about the various trains that left from there: the date, the number of people deported and its destination to the various ghettos and camps.Photos: Ronel Koekemoer
“Today, while there are some Jewish people living in Kazimierz, it is predominantly a tourist site offering a nostalgic view of a Jewish past: there are facades of Jewish businesses, restaurants serve Jewish foods and synagogues offer tours. However, the absence of Jewish life is unmistakable. While Kazimierz seems to emphasise how Jews lived rather than died, it is undeniably a part of the ‘trauma circuit’; vendors sell ‘souvenirs’ that include figures of rabbis with big noses and yellow magnets in the shape of the Star of David”.
Mame-Diara MbayeThe roof of the Tempel Synagogue in Kazimierz, Krakow. Once a centre of Jewish life in Poland, the synagogue was ruined and repurposed by the Nazi occupation as an ammunition store during the war. 
“What does it mean to continue mundane acts of life on the same grounds which were once the site of extreme suffering and death? In the face of a world which still suffers from antisemitism and Holocaust denialism, to what extent do these sites serve to prove that there was indeed human suffering?"
Mame-Diara MbayeThe Ghetto Heroes Square in Krakow. This memorial is in the center of Podgorze, the area where the Krakow Ghetto used to be where over 20,000 Jews were interned in a space which should have accommodated 3,000 people. Photo: Mame-Diara Mbaye 
Wawel Castle overlooked our hotel in Krakow, our
first stop of our study-tour. The old castle’s architecture signifies a pre-WWII Polish past, but was actually a major site of the Nazi administration and terror during the war.
Wavel Castel, Krakow, Poland.Photo: Kuhle Mnisi
For many of our students (like Cassandra Da Cruz
pictured here), this was their first trip overseas.
Wawel Castle in Krakow was one of the many sites
students explored on their own when we first
arrived in Poland.
Wawel Castle. Krakow, Poland Photo: Kuhle Mnisi
Wawel castle was one of the first places students
went to explore.
The castle, with its mix of European architectural
styles, made the fact that we had arrived in Europe
very real to many of us.
However, even this grand building was imbued with
Holocaust era history; under Nazi occupation, art
and tapestries in the castle were looted and many
have not been returned to Poland.
Wawel Castle. Krakow, Poland Photo: Kuhle Mnisi
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We visited sites of immense violence and unimaginable atrocity. In Krakow, Lodz, Warsaw, Berlin, and Nuremberg we saw a layered past - hulking Soviet-era monuments, the grassroots initiatives of ordinary citizens, abstract modern memorials, cutting edge museums and their ageing forebears - that reflect generations of effort to make sense of tragedy.
And we stumbled across memory (and its failures) in action — a far-right rally at the Brandenburg Gate, and naked racism in Nuremberg. We were struck as much by the presence of these markers as by mournful absences. Empty synagogues, unvisited cemeteries, brass cobblestones reminding us of residents long since dragged away and killed.
Mame-Diara Mbaye“I found the stolpersteine a moving but disturbing tribute to those who died. Their placement on the floor meant that Tali and Adam had to point them out and explain them to us the first time. After that, it was impossible to miss them as we walked through Berlin. Not only did it serve as a reminder of the lives lost, but of the life in those lives that had existed before the horror of the Holocaust.” And we stumbled across memory (and its failures) in action — a far-right rally at the Brandenburg Gate, and naked racism in Nuremberg. We were struck as much by the presence of these markers as by mournful absences. Empty synagogues, unvisited cemeteries, brass cobblestones reminding us of residents long since dragged away and killed.
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism in Berlin. Each day at noon, the triangular pedestal sinks below the water and is brought back to the surface shortly afterwards with a fresh flower.
The triangle is a significant symbol in the history of concentration camps during the Holocaust because the Nazis used different coloured triangles to identify different targeted groups.
Video still: Langa Twala The triangle is a significant symbol in the history of concentration camps during the Holocaust because the Nazis used different coloured triangles to identify different targeted groups.
“Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones”) were evident throughout Berlin.
The evidence of the Holocaust has been memorialised in the pavement. Stoplesteine are stepped on and over by the cities’ residents and tourists, all documenting the rich variety of lives lived in these cities before they were snuffed out by one of history’s most notorious crimes.”
Ronel KoekemoerThese commemorative brass plaques are inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi persecution and are set into the pavement of the last known address where the victims lived.The evidence of the Holocaust has been memorialised in the pavement. Stoplesteine are stepped on and over by the cities’ residents and tourists, all documenting the rich variety of lives lived in these cities before they were snuffed out by one of history’s most notorious crimes.”
Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
"One of the most troubling sites for me was the Berlin Track 17 Deportation Memorial at Grunewald railway station. I walked along the platform and read the dates and the numbers of people deported to the different camps. The further along into the war you walk, the fewer and fewer the number of people deported— signifying the ‘success’ of the Nazi project to rid Germany of Jews.”
Ronel Koekemoer Track 17 Deportation Memorial at Grunewald railway station, Berlin Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
"Can memorials exist as just respectable homages to people who died atrociously o will they always inevitably work to serv a political narrative or agenda? Does a memorial serving a particular agenda tarnish the sanctity of remembrance?”
Mame-Diara MbayeMemorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“When we were standing around the Memorial to the Murdered Roma and Sinti, two people carrying Anarchist flags came to look at the memorial. I remember how tense the air around us became until they left. Even if they had just come to visit the memorial, the unease I felt made me realise how fragile these spaces of memory are. It emphasised how we live in a time where the sanctity of these spaces is increasingly threatened by the rise of right-wing, nationalist and fascist ideologies in Europe”.
Ronel KoekemoerThe triangular pedestal at the centre of the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under National Socialism, Berlin.Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“I valued the experience of going to the Polish Uprising Monument and learning about how brave Poles stood up and resisted during a time when they were losing a war. The will of the people to sacrifice themselves for a bigger cause is remarkable and inspiring.”
Muziwakithu MasekoStatue commemorating the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw, Poland. Photo: Ronel Koekemoer
“In all the cities we visited, “it felt as though you could see a shadow of the former life of an integral part of society… It partly felt as though these aspects of the cities were kept as a tourist attraction.”
Cassandra Du CruzThe courtyard which houses The Otto Weidt Workshop for the Blind Museum, where during the Holocaust Weidt employed mostly blind and deaf Jewish workers to try and protect them from deportation.Photo: Langa Twala
The Berlin Track 17 Deportation Memorial speaks to the obsessive nature of Nazi prosecution. Even in the period when it was clear that the war was lost and the Germans were facing huge shortages of transport, these trains left nearly every day. Where once they carried over a thousand Jews a day, some of the later transports carried as few as eighteen.
Ronel KoekemoerThe Track 17 Deportation Memorial consists of the platform and railway track that was used for the deportation. Each sleeper is inscribed with details about the various trains that left from there: the date, the number of people deported and its destination to the various ghettos and camps.Photos: Ronel Koekemoer
“Today, while there are some Jewish people living in Kazimierz, it is predominantly a tourist site offering a nostalgic view of a Jewish past: there are facades of Jewish businesses, restaurants serve Jewish foods and synagogues offer tours. However, the absence of Jewish life is unmistakable. While Kazimierz seems to emphasise how Jews lived rather than died, it is undeniably a part of the ‘trauma circuit’; vendors sell ‘souvenirs’ that include figures of rabbis with big noses and yellow magnets in the shape of the Star of David”.
Mame-Diara MbayeThe roof of the Tempel Synagogue in Kazimierz, Krakow. Once a centre of Jewish life in Poland, the synagogue was ruined and repurposed by the Nazi occupation as an ammunition store during the war. 
“What does it mean to continue mundane acts of life on the same grounds which were once the site of extreme suffering and death? In the face of a world which still suffers from antisemitism and Holocaust denialism, to what extent do these sites serve to prove that there was indeed human suffering?"
Mame-Diara MbayeThe Ghetto Heroes Square in Krakow. This memorial is in the center of Podgorze, the area where the Krakow Ghetto used to be where over 20,000 Jews were interned in a space which should have accommodated 3,000 people. Photo: Mame-Diara Mbaye 
Wawel Castle overlooked our hotel in Krakow, our
first stop of our study-tour. The old castle’s architecture signifies a pre-WWII Polish past, but was actually a major site of the Nazi administration and terror during the war.
Wavel Castel, Krakow, Poland. Photo: Kuhle Mnisi
For many of our students (like Cassandra Da Cruz
pictured here), this was their first trip overseas.
Wawel Castle in Krakow was one of the many sites
students explored on their own when we first
arrived in Poland.
Wawel Castle. Krakow, Poland Photo: Kuhle Mnisi
Wawel castle was one of the first places students
went to explore.
The castle, with its mix of European architectural
styles, made the fact that we had arrived in Europe
very real to many of us.
However, even this grand building was imbued with
Holocaust era history; under Nazi occupation, art
and tapestries in the castle were looted and many
have not been returned to Poland.
Wawel Castle. Krakow, Poland Photo: Kuhle Mnisi
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