An Evil Place

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On Sunday, June 11, we again went for a drive into the Vosges mountains. This time, we went near the town of Natzweiler, which located at a high elevation, in a quiet place, far away from prying eyes. 100 years ago, there was a ski lodge here named Struthof that was popular among the flat-landers from the plains below. Today there is a memorial. At issue is what happened some 65 years ago.
In 1941 the Nazis opened the Natzweiler - Struthof Work Camp here. It was the most westernly concentration camp run by the Nazis. (You could say it was the only one on French soil, but the Nazis considered Alsace to be part Germany, not France.) By all standards, this was not the largest or the most murderous of camps. But evil is evil - regardless as to whether the scale is large or small. Not that the murder of over 20,000 people should ever be considered small scale.

Natzweiler - Struthof started as a work camp. It was a place to which Jews and homosexuals and political resisters were deported and forced to work at quarrying sandstone from the hills. Later, with links to the Strasbourg Medical University, it became a pilot plant for the mass murder that would occur in the extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka. Poison gases were tested. Gruesome medical experiments were performed. Strasbourg University was commisioned to create an anatomical collection of the Jewish peoples. It was understood that such a record was needed for historical reference, since all Jewish peoples would soon be exterminated.
On this particular Sunday in June, the view from this location was spectacular. It was beautiful. It was noisy with singing birds. This is how I want to remember it.

I started out taking lots of pictures like any tourist. After a while, I turned off the camera. It was not respectful to photograph these things.

I don't want to forget the solitary confinement cells, or the gallows, or the oven, or the ash pit, or the autopsy table. But I don't want to remember them too easily either.

Here's to our children and our grandchildren. I hope such evil is gone from their world and never to return.