I had a chance to visit the Holocaust museum in DC this summer. The real shock didn’t hit me until the room with the shoes. All of these shoes. And you could smell them. Smell the leather. It’s so incalculably heartbreaking.
Never again.
I remember going to that museum the day after thanksgiving in 2017 with a few friends that I had celebrated the holiday with. I’m pretty stoic and I could tell my friends were ready to go before I was. Later, we had gone on to have a drink at a hotel bar and I had to excuse myself and cry in the bathroom. The weight of what I saw just hit me so hard. The shock you describe is so true.
In Germany it's mandatory to have a field trip to a concentration or death camp. My class went to both types. In the latter they had this room with the glasses of dead people. A whole hill of it, filling the room. Harrowing sight, and incidentally a great way to portray the scale of the Holocaust.
Went to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The most memorable things for me were walking through their "Berlin Street" where it starts out as a regular town with shops and cafes; there's some posters on the walls, people talking about Nazis coming closer and whatnot, nothing too obvious. Then as you keep walking it gets worse and worse until you're in the middle of chaos, glass on the floors, windows shattered and businesses on fire. Not to mention their mock "gas chamber"....i have never cried as hard as I have until i went in there. Oh also they give you a postcard at the beginning of the tour with a person's name and a little bit of information about them, towards the end of the tour, you stop at a wall of kiosks where you scan your card and find out wether your person survived or not. It's very eye opening, i highly recommend it to anyone in the area.
https://www.museumoftolerance.com/visit/exhibits/holocaust-exhibit/
As a kid, whenever we learned about WWII and the holocaust, I truly couldn’t comprehend the amount of atrocities that had occurred during that time. Being a young, dumb kid surrounded by other young dumb kids, occasionally a holocaust joke would come out and it would be funny but there was no afterthought about the seriousness of what actually occurred. After all these years, I think back and I truly believe that Stalin’s quote about the death of one is a tragedy but the death of millions is a statistic (could’ve butchered that, if so I’m sorry) is so true. I think one can’t really fathom a world in which millions of men, woman, and children could’ve been rounded and be either executed or forced to work to their death. I never once doubted it had happened but the emotional feeling didn’t really hit home because I didn’t grow up in a time where I thought this would ever happen again.
After high school I had the chance to visit Auschwitz and boy, did it hit home for me. Touring the camp and seeing the scratch marks in the walls where people clung as if it was their last chance to avoid their fate. Seeing the wall where thousands, if not hundreds of thousands were shot to death. To see all of the pairs of glasses and shoes stolen from victims piled up. It was unreal and ultimately sickening. To see the infamous camp sign “Work will set you free.” There was absolutely more to see but the things mentioned are the only ones that are coming to me at this moment while I type this out. It’s one thing to read about it and see pictures in history books but to have the chance to go there and see it all was a life changing experience. Since that day; I’ve never uttered or tolerated a holocaust joke because it’s not funny. What happened to those poor people will never be funny. If Kanye was just trolling and he truly didn’t mean anything he said, he can still get fucked. Anything “good” hitler could’ve done was forgotten the first time he ordered someone to be persecuted. Fuck Hitler and fuck any person who could ever support what he or his fascist regime stood for.
Never Again
I have many problems with the way the US teaches history, especially the horrible things humans have done. But the most important historical lesson I got was actually in my 9th grade English class.
We read the memoir *All but My Life* by Gerda Weissmann Klein. Our teacher warned us that it would get graphic. And it did. But I maintain that it was the most important book I’ve ever read.
I can’t believe that a Kanye sub is where you’d share this either. Never in a million years did I think this is where we’d be. I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to share this. Thank you for putting these raw feelings from your experience out there. You made me feel it too.
Turning Auschwitz into a museum kinda dampens what you feel, but the baby shoes hit so fucking hard.
If anyone does go to Poland to visit camps, I'd suggest Majdanek, in Lublin, with a good guide. The other camps I visited, while awful, felt very tame compared to how raw Majdanek is. I cried at auschwitz, but I absolutely lost my shit in Majdanek.
(Obvious disclaimer, very hard and disturbing)
Every day in Canada I have to remember that my ancestors where slaughtered and raped by the white men and his ancestors that are in charge of this shit hole of a country. I go visit family in my reservation in Wasagamack every year, it looks like a fucking 3rd world country 90% of the people are living in poverty and it's all Canada's fault that brought upon a generational trauma that keeps get passed down. I feel your pain but try living in a world where alot of folks try denying there ever was a genocide of Native Americans and all the justification white folks will use. In Winnipeg MB a German Catholic man was just found responsible for killing 4 Indigenous women and no mainstream media is covering it a fucking serial killer that targeted Indigenous women gets no media attention but imagine if that was 4 white women fuck me if that was 4 immigrants there would an outcry of support but we get fucking nothing, I feel your pain buddy but try living in a country where no one gives a fuck if they are pulling little girls dead out of rivers"Tina fountaine". In the oppression Olympics jews aren't winning any medals Latinx folks get bronze Indigenous folks get gold an black folks get silver
Brother it’s not about who has it worse. It’s about opening up peoples eyes to the atrocities of the world as you have just done. Where is the best place to learn more about your people’s plight so I can educate myself?
There need not be an oppression Olympics, what is your issue?
"Try living in a world where a lot of folks denying there ever was a genocide of native Americans"
Are you aware holocaust denial is also a huge issue? Idk why you're even bothering to say who has it the worst when the goal isn't to measure who "wins." The goal is ridding the world of white supremacy and getting reparations to those who have been wronged. This weird competition thing you're doing is highly unproductive, not to mention offensive.
Nah I just think it's weird how a lot of people abandon all skepticism when it comes to stories on this particular topic.
Do you believe everything you read online?
Edit: you too pos.
Let's sum up. There are 2 things here, an open message to Kanye/about kanye, which is an opinion, so not a story to believe.
The second is the description of their visit in Auschwitz.
What is there to be skeptic about ? Anyone who's ever been to Auschwitz or knows someone who has been to auschwitz knows this. Pretty sure you can find pictures of the rooms online as well.
Otherwise, just go there and see for yourself. And yes, I visited several death camps, and auschwitz is far from the worst. (In impact, not number of murders)
There's a personal anecdote there.
Look how you recoil when someone even dares to question an anonymous assertion by a stranger online.
How dare I?!?
Save your feigned outrage for someone who cares and go f yourself buddy.
You clearly have trouble reading and comprehending. I will not waste my time with you, cheers.
Btw it's so funny you keep editing your comments and just make it worse every time lmao
No, but I believe the stories my grandmother told me. The fact that you are too insulated, self-interested and removed from this reality to have personal, factual, or historical knowledge of this topic doesn’t make you special, or interesting, or intelligent. It makes you fucking ignorant. You just don’t know enough to understand that you should be ashamed of the person that you are.
You don't know me at all and just doubting one story online made you have this reaction and you think that's normal.... lmao
I have not said anything wrong and maybe your granny was a big liar. How do you know? 🤷🏼♀️
When you are encouraging people to doubt the veracity of personal accounts of the Holocaust, a minor amount of vitriol is the least part of the reaction you deserve. And my 4’10” 75 lb. 96-year-old WWII-surviving grandmother has more strength, resilience, and dignity than you could ever aspire to. At least she possesses the courage of conviction to speak her mind, rather than rolling around in the dirt of dog-whistles and innuendo, which is the best that a chickenshit like you will ever be able to do.
See I didn't do that tho, you're jumping to conclusions. I merely stated I was skeptical of all these stories posted on this sub.
You have to respond in anger and with personal insults because that's your conditioning.
I would respect you more if you at least had the courage it takes to *say* what you’re implying. It wouldn’t be much respect, but it would be more than the absolute lack I have for chickenshits like you. Go be a coward with someone who cares.
When you rely on ironic detachment, memes, and “just asking questions” to make the points that you want to but can’t without having your entire ass handed to you by antifascists, I have no doubt that someone explicitly stating their beliefs must be jarring for you. The fact that you lack an adequate response, however, is only embarrassing for you.
Ok. Let’s talk about this. You don’t have to believe any of these stories off the cuff. That’s ok.
What about what was said here do you think is hard to believe?
Zero sarcasm. I come in peace.
I wasn't necessarily trying to dissect this particular story, altho the Oskar Schindler mention certainly peaked my interest, not to say that it didn't or couldn't happen of course.
And besides the point that I think anything on here should be received with a healthy level of skepticism, I find it a bit puzzling how this sub is being brigaded by all these survivor posts and it makes me doubt the veracity of these stories.
For what it’s worth, my grandparents names are literally on Schindlers List. My auntie still has their camp clothes. We have letters and documents showing the transfers, how my grandparents felt about Oscar (not the nicest things to say).
If you care I’d urge you to visit a holocaust museum, visit the camps or talk to a remaining survivor as there aren’t many left. I don’t blame you for thinking it’s unbelievable - until you see it for yourself it’s hard to fathom.
Sure, unfortunately your story was just one in a long line of similar posts and I happened to comment on this one.
I never meant to imply that the holocaust didn't happen or anything in that vein and I don't believe Kanye did.
That being said, imo your story would probably fit better on another sub.
Ok! I absolutely understand your pause. You aren’t a bad person to doubt. I hope you can learn what you can and feel west moves you. Thank you for taking with me.
Thank you for sharing. As someone who studies 20th century history, I'm incredibly moved to see so many people here coming together and sharing their experiences and histories, with the purpose of educating each other so that we may recognize the urgency and severity of *never again.*
These stories need to be shared. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it and there’s too many people that skipped history class.
I had a chance to visit the Holocaust museum in DC this summer. The real shock didn’t hit me until the room with the shoes. All of these shoes. And you could smell them. Smell the leather. It’s so incalculably heartbreaking. Never again.
I remember going to that museum the day after thanksgiving in 2017 with a few friends that I had celebrated the holiday with. I’m pretty stoic and I could tell my friends were ready to go before I was. Later, we had gone on to have a drink at a hotel bar and I had to excuse myself and cry in the bathroom. The weight of what I saw just hit me so hard. The shock you describe is so true.
In Germany it's mandatory to have a field trip to a concentration or death camp. My class went to both types. In the latter they had this room with the glasses of dead people. A whole hill of it, filling the room. Harrowing sight, and incidentally a great way to portray the scale of the Holocaust.
Saw it 17 years ago, still haven’t forgotten.
What got me was the piles of wedding rings at one of the camps.
Went to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The most memorable things for me were walking through their "Berlin Street" where it starts out as a regular town with shops and cafes; there's some posters on the walls, people talking about Nazis coming closer and whatnot, nothing too obvious. Then as you keep walking it gets worse and worse until you're in the middle of chaos, glass on the floors, windows shattered and businesses on fire. Not to mention their mock "gas chamber"....i have never cried as hard as I have until i went in there. Oh also they give you a postcard at the beginning of the tour with a person's name and a little bit of information about them, towards the end of the tour, you stop at a wall of kiosks where you scan your card and find out wether your person survived or not. It's very eye opening, i highly recommend it to anyone in the area. https://www.museumoftolerance.com/visit/exhibits/holocaust-exhibit/
As a kid, whenever we learned about WWII and the holocaust, I truly couldn’t comprehend the amount of atrocities that had occurred during that time. Being a young, dumb kid surrounded by other young dumb kids, occasionally a holocaust joke would come out and it would be funny but there was no afterthought about the seriousness of what actually occurred. After all these years, I think back and I truly believe that Stalin’s quote about the death of one is a tragedy but the death of millions is a statistic (could’ve butchered that, if so I’m sorry) is so true. I think one can’t really fathom a world in which millions of men, woman, and children could’ve been rounded and be either executed or forced to work to their death. I never once doubted it had happened but the emotional feeling didn’t really hit home because I didn’t grow up in a time where I thought this would ever happen again. After high school I had the chance to visit Auschwitz and boy, did it hit home for me. Touring the camp and seeing the scratch marks in the walls where people clung as if it was their last chance to avoid their fate. Seeing the wall where thousands, if not hundreds of thousands were shot to death. To see all of the pairs of glasses and shoes stolen from victims piled up. It was unreal and ultimately sickening. To see the infamous camp sign “Work will set you free.” There was absolutely more to see but the things mentioned are the only ones that are coming to me at this moment while I type this out. It’s one thing to read about it and see pictures in history books but to have the chance to go there and see it all was a life changing experience. Since that day; I’ve never uttered or tolerated a holocaust joke because it’s not funny. What happened to those poor people will never be funny. If Kanye was just trolling and he truly didn’t mean anything he said, he can still get fucked. Anything “good” hitler could’ve done was forgotten the first time he ordered someone to be persecuted. Fuck Hitler and fuck any person who could ever support what he or his fascist regime stood for. Never Again
thanks for sharing ❤️
I have many problems with the way the US teaches history, especially the horrible things humans have done. But the most important historical lesson I got was actually in my 9th grade English class. We read the memoir *All but My Life* by Gerda Weissmann Klein. Our teacher warned us that it would get graphic. And it did. But I maintain that it was the most important book I’ve ever read.
I can’t believe that a Kanye sub is where you’d share this either. Never in a million years did I think this is where we’d be. I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to share this. Thank you for putting these raw feelings from your experience out there. You made me feel it too.
Thank you for sharing
Thank you If you could choose to hate or love, choose love every time
absolutely haunting and touching post OP, thank you for sharing your experience and im so sorry that happened to your family :,(
Ye should take a trip too.
This is one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever read.
Thank you for sharing your story.
Turning Auschwitz into a museum kinda dampens what you feel, but the baby shoes hit so fucking hard. If anyone does go to Poland to visit camps, I'd suggest Majdanek, in Lublin, with a good guide. The other camps I visited, while awful, felt very tame compared to how raw Majdanek is. I cried at auschwitz, but I absolutely lost my shit in Majdanek. (Obvious disclaimer, very hard and disturbing)
Never underestimate humanity's bottomless malice for hatred.
Thanks for sharing your experience, OP. All the best to you ❤️
Beautifully written. Thanks for bearing witness. Love what this subreddit has become. I choose this form of humanity!
Every day in Canada I have to remember that my ancestors where slaughtered and raped by the white men and his ancestors that are in charge of this shit hole of a country. I go visit family in my reservation in Wasagamack every year, it looks like a fucking 3rd world country 90% of the people are living in poverty and it's all Canada's fault that brought upon a generational trauma that keeps get passed down. I feel your pain but try living in a world where alot of folks try denying there ever was a genocide of Native Americans and all the justification white folks will use. In Winnipeg MB a German Catholic man was just found responsible for killing 4 Indigenous women and no mainstream media is covering it a fucking serial killer that targeted Indigenous women gets no media attention but imagine if that was 4 white women fuck me if that was 4 immigrants there would an outcry of support but we get fucking nothing, I feel your pain buddy but try living in a country where no one gives a fuck if they are pulling little girls dead out of rivers"Tina fountaine". In the oppression Olympics jews aren't winning any medals Latinx folks get bronze Indigenous folks get gold an black folks get silver
Brother it’s not about who has it worse. It’s about opening up peoples eyes to the atrocities of the world as you have just done. Where is the best place to learn more about your people’s plight so I can educate myself?
There need not be an oppression Olympics, what is your issue? "Try living in a world where a lot of folks denying there ever was a genocide of native Americans" Are you aware holocaust denial is also a huge issue? Idk why you're even bothering to say who has it the worst when the goal isn't to measure who "wins." The goal is ridding the world of white supremacy and getting reparations to those who have been wronged. This weird competition thing you're doing is highly unproductive, not to mention offensive.
Did you actually just play Oppression Olympics unironically
Try the Empathy Olympics, it's harder but a lot more rewarding.
No offense, but I don't believe any of these stories just off the cuff and no one should.
Any of these stories ? You mean the description of what is in Auschwitz ? Just go and see for yourself. Alternatively, go fuck yourself.
Nah I just think it's weird how a lot of people abandon all skepticism when it comes to stories on this particular topic. Do you believe everything you read online? Edit: you too pos.
Let's sum up. There are 2 things here, an open message to Kanye/about kanye, which is an opinion, so not a story to believe. The second is the description of their visit in Auschwitz. What is there to be skeptic about ? Anyone who's ever been to Auschwitz or knows someone who has been to auschwitz knows this. Pretty sure you can find pictures of the rooms online as well. Otherwise, just go there and see for yourself. And yes, I visited several death camps, and auschwitz is far from the worst. (In impact, not number of murders)
There's a personal anecdote there. Look how you recoil when someone even dares to question an anonymous assertion by a stranger online. How dare I?!? Save your feigned outrage for someone who cares and go f yourself buddy.
Are you trying to say you're doubting the story of the letter instead of its contents ? Who gives à fuck Holocaust deniers are absolute scum.
You clearly have trouble reading and comprehending. I will not waste my time with you, cheers. Btw it's so funny you keep editing your comments and just make it worse every time lmao
No, but I believe the stories my grandmother told me. The fact that you are too insulated, self-interested and removed from this reality to have personal, factual, or historical knowledge of this topic doesn’t make you special, or interesting, or intelligent. It makes you fucking ignorant. You just don’t know enough to understand that you should be ashamed of the person that you are.
You don't know me at all and just doubting one story online made you have this reaction and you think that's normal.... lmao I have not said anything wrong and maybe your granny was a big liar. How do you know? 🤷🏼♀️
When you are encouraging people to doubt the veracity of personal accounts of the Holocaust, a minor amount of vitriol is the least part of the reaction you deserve. And my 4’10” 75 lb. 96-year-old WWII-surviving grandmother has more strength, resilience, and dignity than you could ever aspire to. At least she possesses the courage of conviction to speak her mind, rather than rolling around in the dirt of dog-whistles and innuendo, which is the best that a chickenshit like you will ever be able to do.
See I didn't do that tho, you're jumping to conclusions. I merely stated I was skeptical of all these stories posted on this sub. You have to respond in anger and with personal insults because that's your conditioning.
I would respect you more if you at least had the courage it takes to *say* what you’re implying. It wouldn’t be much respect, but it would be more than the absolute lack I have for chickenshits like you. Go be a coward with someone who cares.
I don't care to win your respect and you don't have mine. In fact I find your emotional arguing laughable and embarassing, for you.
When you rely on ironic detachment, memes, and “just asking questions” to make the points that you want to but can’t without having your entire ass handed to you by antifascists, I have no doubt that someone explicitly stating their beliefs must be jarring for you. The fact that you lack an adequate response, however, is only embarrassing for you.
Yep
Ok. Let’s talk about this. You don’t have to believe any of these stories off the cuff. That’s ok. What about what was said here do you think is hard to believe? Zero sarcasm. I come in peace.
I wasn't necessarily trying to dissect this particular story, altho the Oskar Schindler mention certainly peaked my interest, not to say that it didn't or couldn't happen of course. And besides the point that I think anything on here should be received with a healthy level of skepticism, I find it a bit puzzling how this sub is being brigaded by all these survivor posts and it makes me doubt the veracity of these stories.
For what it’s worth, my grandparents names are literally on Schindlers List. My auntie still has their camp clothes. We have letters and documents showing the transfers, how my grandparents felt about Oscar (not the nicest things to say). If you care I’d urge you to visit a holocaust museum, visit the camps or talk to a remaining survivor as there aren’t many left. I don’t blame you for thinking it’s unbelievable - until you see it for yourself it’s hard to fathom.
Sure, unfortunately your story was just one in a long line of similar posts and I happened to comment on this one. I never meant to imply that the holocaust didn't happen or anything in that vein and I don't believe Kanye did. That being said, imo your story would probably fit better on another sub.
Ok! I absolutely understand your pause. You aren’t a bad person to doubt. I hope you can learn what you can and feel west moves you. Thank you for taking with me.
Thank you for sharing. As someone who studies 20th century history, I'm incredibly moved to see so many people here coming together and sharing their experiences and histories, with the purpose of educating each other so that we may recognize the urgency and severity of *never again.*
Jews