Value of Historical Memory

Today's blog entry is a serious one. This is because today was a serious day. One of the reasons why I was desperate to come to Europe was to see in person a place like Auschwitz. I was not sure what to expect or what emotions I would feel. What is often more disturbing is to see the images and videos that are now seen in movies, documentaries, and on the internet regarding the victims of Nazi genocide. When I see these, I am more deeply disturbed. Walking through Auschwitz gave me a different perspective. I kept thinking that I am walking on the same grounds that the poor victims of Nazi cruelty once walked. Or I felt that I was standing in the same spot as the Nazi leaders and Nazi doctors, who were able to end the lives of 6 millions Jews, and in total 50 million people.

One week ago, as an assignment for one of my history classes at Simon Fraser University, we had to write a short paper to reflect on different aspects of that class over the course of the semester. One of the questions asked in this assignment was to reflect on what we thought the value of historical knowledge is. I said, "Jacques Barzun, a historian of ideas and culture, wrote in his book entitled Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning, that,

The student who reads history will unconsciously develop what is the highest value of history: judgment in worldly affairs. This is a permanent good, not because ‘history repeats’—we can never exactly match past and present situations—but because the ‘tendency of things’ shows an amazing uniformity within any given civilization. As the great historian Burckhardt said of historical knowledge, it is not 'to make us more clever the next time, but wiser for all time.'

I believe that Barzun’s eloquent definition on the value of historical knowledge is what best defines why we study history and how I reflect back upon this course. Often I believe people think that we study history so that we can avoid certain atrocities that have happened in the past, most notably events such as the Holocaust or other incidents of genocide. However, I fully concur with Jacob Burckhardt’s idea of the value of historical knowledge, in which he believes that the true reason we study history is, more simply put, to make us wiser. Not only do I take history because I enjoy it, but I take it to make me wiser, and help me communicate my thoughts more eloquently about events that have happened in the past. I enjoy the opportunity to discuss crucial historical events and being able to refute some people’s ideas and to share what I have learned from the courses I have studied." And now I can add the experience of seeing Auschwitz as something that I have seen and learned in person.

What is the point in me writing about the value of historical memory in this context? Well today, I witnessed first hand the horrific cruelty that humans can do to one another. No videos, no images, no documents can portray the draconian nature of the Nazis. Today, I can say that this was a life altering event in my life. I do not know how to describe it. It is just a museum, and it is vastly different than if I were there in 1943. However, the museum has done a lot of work in preserving the buildings and materials that were around during the second world war.

Image taken from Auschwitz Museum

What surprised me? In all honesty, I am not sure if I was surprised by much. Except, once we got to Birkenau (Auschwitz II), I was shocked at its gargantuan size! Four kilometres long, and 1 kilometre wide, unquestionably, is a massive amount of space. Barbed wire stretching from cement post to cement post around the perimeter of the camp, reminds me of the images of people who looked through from the inside, as the Nazi leaders like Himmler and Hoss strolled passed them.

This I didn't really know either: Auschwitz had for a long time been a German name for Oswiecim, the town in which the camps are located. The name "Auschwitz" was made by the Nazis after they invaded Poland in September 1939. This was common as they wanted to Germanize all the city names in the newly German-occupied territory. Birkenau, the German translation of brzezinka ("birch forest"), referred originally to a small Polish village that was destroyed by the Nazis to make way for the camp.

The following are images that we took that, similar to above, were scattered around the two different sites that had a number of different facts. I find the particularly useful in understanding the story of Auschwitz.

 These words that I took pictures of describe just some of the horrific-ness of Auschwitz. The following are just a few of the images that we took through this extraordinary place.

 This sign equals the greatest lie of all time: Arbeit Macht Frei "Work makes you free"

The value of historical knowledge is simple. We cannot forget those who have been affected by the world's greatest atrocities. The value of history is simple. It is to make us wiser. We need to remember that by learning from our history we won't be bound to live through it again.