Statue in Soltau
Bergen-Belsen
How does one react to Bergen-Belsen? It wasn't an extermination camp like Auschwitz, but the treatment of its inmates followed a deliberate policy of over-work, under-nutrition and neglect that had the same effect. It's liberation was filmed by AFPU and MovieTone cinematographers and photographers and those images have become iconic. I found the exhibition overwhelming, and walked out unable to speak. First word? Bastards!
Both J and I had some common responses. At one point the film shows the SS guards being forced to unload bodies from a truck and put them in a mass grave. They are seen dragging the bodies, tugging them out of piles, dumping them into the grave. Presumably the exercise was to show the SS men and women what the work the inmates had been doing was like but we both felt that the British guards had missed the point, that they were allowing the SS to continue to treat the victims as lumps of meat, as non-persons. They should have been made to carry each carefully and place them in the grave, to force them finally to see them as a human. In practice we know the urgency of the burials which led to hundreds of bodies being bulldozed into the mass graves (how did those drivers suffer after the war?) but these were rituals for the camera, so why not reinforce the humanity?
We also disbelieved the denial that locals (eg, Celle mayor and others of course) knew what was happening. Other evidence in the museum showed that they must have known - locals visited the camps regularly, and the inhumane transports passed through with regularity. One train was bombed by the Allies and several hundred 'inmates' escaped into the countryside. Many were rounded up and several hundred shot - all of those towns must have seen and heard about the condition of the prisoners.
Of course the question that arises is how would I have reacted in the place of a inmate? Would I have stolen bread? Would I have given up hope? Would I loot dead inmates? Would I resist? What if I was a local? Or for that matter would I have been a guard? And if so, how inhumane would I have been? We all know about the lab experiments that show anyone is capable of inhumane actions in certain environments, and we've seen it in the Balkans, Rwanda, Syria and elsewhere. I hope I am never put to the test.
Our stop was at Rodewald, where we chatted with a German ex-policeman and his wife. I can number conversations with people other than J and shop-assistants on the fingers of one hand. They were quite excited that we came from New Zealand as his 2nd cousin had just married a photographer who had published a book of New Zealand photos. We looked through it - very nice landscape shots from all around NZ.
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