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Israelis who visited the Auschwitz concentration camp museum in Poland on Sunday were shocked to discover that the museums' management had placed mist showers near the facilities entrance, in an effort to beat the heat. Anyone who saw the showers could not help get past the gas chamber connotation."
"As soon as I got off the bus I walked into the shower contraption," said Meyer Bolka, an Israeli visiting the museum. "I was in shock. It was a punch to the gut. I walked up to the reception and asked the worker there about the showers, she said it was a hot day. I told her: 'With all due respect it reminds me of the gas chambers,' she told me she is very sorry."
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10 comments:
Any sort of bakery on the premises would equally offend.
I was almost certainly innocent, but not the best idea in hindsight.
At least the management didn't suggest the visitors take off their shoes.
Shoe piles at Auschwitz
Of all the pictures that get to me, these rank high. I would have been disturbed by the sight of the showers running, at the same time, the idea of people being benignly cooled and rejuvenated by water in the same place where water was visually promised to others and malignantly switched to deadly gas, is quite a juxtaposition. There but for time...
Sometimes you just can't win.
MamaM- quite so. The shoe heaps are very disturbing, of course I think that there were once feet in all those shoes, but it also indicates the German efficiency, planning and logistics. Someone in the 40s actually called a meeting and discussed an agenda item : What do we do with all the shoes?
How does a group of people murder millions? Did they really think that they were serving the interests of the great German people or that they were improving the world or whatever? Or did everyone know this was evil and just went along with it by pretending that it was part of something greater.
The misters (not showers) at the camp are a good idea, and I’ll bet they have prevented visitors from heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Being offended is missing the point.
Seriously? This is offensive?
I love those misters. At the Farmers market they set them up above the veggies. Most hot shoppers walk by hoping to be misted.
MamaM linked:
Shoe piles at Auschwitz
The photos invite you to walk a moment in theirs.
I wouldn't be offended, but I wouldn't take a vacation trip to Auschwitz either. There are better places to take selfies and show off your new tattoo.
The showers are pretty bad but he souvenir lampshades in the gift shop are even worse.
Hey, a Polish joke is in order:
Q: What's the difference between a smart Polack and a unicorn?
A: Nothing. They're both fictions.
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