This is the first time I have read this thread since I posted my now infamous 'Rubbish' response to Greg on 16 September. First let me say that I am deeply touched at those forum members who sprang to my defence (regarding Britain's history on human rights). Let me reassure you all that I wasn't offended by Greg's comments at all, which have some merit. Let me just make two points in reply.
First, when your nation has controlled such huge swathes of the globe at one time or another, there is just a greater chance of doing wrong (how many massacres has Liechtenstein perpetrated?)
Secondly, please remember that we have done great good too. Relevant to this thread is the observation that if we had not stood alone in 1940/41 (ably supported by Australia and New Zealand of course), Auschwitz would still be going strong today, and there would be not one Jew living in continental Europe.
I had found this entire thread distasteful from its inception, and Greg's idea that he had a duty to visit a death-camp how ever much the experience was going to hurt him was just the last straw that broke the camel's back, and I exploded. I would like to explain here why this happened. It is simply a question of British culture and the education I have been given.
We in Britain treat our war dead with the greatest respect. When a naval ship is sunk in battle, it automatically becomes a war-grave and is so designated on charts. No diver would dream of entering a war-grave. Every year, throughout the country, the dead are properly remembered at 11am on the Sunday closest to 11 November (the time and date the First World War ended). We all stop whatever we are doing, stand motionless and silent for two minutes, and think of them and their sacrifice.
To me, from my cultural position, death-camp tourism is the most disgusting and disrespectful form of voyeurism imaginable. I find it deeply offensive. The entire death-camp is a single massive war-grave and, out of respect for the dead, should be closed to visitors, other than organised school parties who come for educational purposes and are shown round by professional guides, and academics. There is absolutely no reason for a tourist to visit a death-camp.
How the dead are remembered is a critical consideration. In Britain we do not mourn our dead but celebrate their lives. If I am a passenger in a car driven recklessly by a maniac along a winding mountain road, and that maniac drives us over the edge and kills me, the last thing I would want is for my children and those who love me to visit that road and themselves drive recklessly along it in some perverse attempt to understand how I felt in my final minutes. No, I would like them to remember me on my birthday, and I would like them to think of the good times we had together far away from that road, and then I would like them to stop thinking about me for the rest of the year and get on with happy and productive lives.
This is why I am inviting those attending the Event to turn their backs on Auschwitz and instead join me in a trip to the Bedzin ghetto, just north of Katowice, where we can, I hope, visit the house of Rutka Laskier (
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyl ... 2220080425 and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W80AkujW ... re=related ) and see where she hid her diary. Then we can say a little prayer together, not mourning her terrible death in Auschwitz later in 1943 after passing through the hands of Dr Mengele, but rather giving thanks for the fortitude this little girl displayed and for the example she has set us all. In other words, the trip is intended to be uplifting, not depressing.
For those who insist on going to a death-camp, let me suggest a compromise respectful to the dead. Go to the gate of the camp, say a prayer, do something defiantly creative to counterbalance the lingering evil of the place, such as write a poem (i.e. hold up your own “little wild bouquet”), make a donation towards the camp’s preservation, and then leave. Do not enter, for to do so as a mere tourist is to desecrate what is surely hallowed ground.
! And, actually, I hope you won't be disappointed that it's just so likely that a single, heated debate won't happen. If they do, they're rare, and I've never been privy to one. What I've noticed is how people tend to focus on what they do or might have in common and try to build on that. It's that same premise that undergirds the interactions between the people involved with the Peace Initiative that Leonard has initiated. Meeting face-to-face invokes a different dynamic. I guess we could manage a heated debate for your benefit, though... "This one's for Carmen 
"
~ I haven't checked to see if that's happened, but I know in other situations of others posting, I've seen it happen.
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because that's when the academic year starts in Romania (usually on the 1st, but rarely other than on a Monday), so I must resume my teaching job. I'll keep on reading as many posts as possible, and I'll be thinking of everyone 
, but I may not be able to write as often... 
