Why Auschwitz must be preserved

We are going to Krakow this spring and have as our first priority, a visit to Auschwitz. So this debate, ‘Should Auschwitz be left to decay’, has given me cause for thought as to why we’re going. I know it isn’t curiosity, Julie and I have previously been to another camp, Dachau in Bavaria, back in 1985 whilst driving back from our honeymoon in the Austrian Alps. Not a very romantic destination and I must admit the wisdom of stopping to visit as we found ourselves so close by, seemed to evaporate as the poor girl spent the time with tears in her eyes.

No, our visit is for the same reason that last December I went with Ted George to the Menin Gate in Ypres. I didn’t know anyone who was there during the conflict, but I still read as many of the names as I could in the time we spent there. That’s the point of it. So they are never forgotten because they have no grave. I see no difference between the Menin Gate and Auschwitz in this respect. Whilst there are no names written down for the 1.1 million people who died at Auschwitz and I don’t know any of the prisoners, by going there I feel that they are remembered by me in my own way. That is why I feel it should be preserved. So next year and the year after and in 2045 on the centenary of its liberation, those without the dignity of a grave will still be remembered by people who never even knew them.



nick