Thursday, May 20, 2010
Day 22 - Munich
When walking along the slim bit of concrete that seperated the grass from the gravel road, I was walking the line that had been between life and death itself. In the Dachau concentration camp, if you stepped off the gravel road, you were shot without warning. After visiting such a place, it definitly leaves me with more questions then answers. Not just how it could happen, which is a question I am sure millions have had to ask when they have learned of such atrocities regarding WWII, but also many others. Such as, did the lack of forgiveness of WWI lead, in some way, to conditions that created the second world war, and if so, what should we learn from this. Also, how do we keep a balance between yielding to authority which is a part of the social contract that allows us to maintain order and freedom, and when and how do we know when to disregard and work against authority. It seams to me that tyranny from WWII had its roots in a lot of people, ideas, and movements prior to WWII and that WWII was the culmination of years of ignorant, misinformed and bad decisions.
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Agreed, Parry. There was a playwright who started an artistic movement post WWI as a means to teach against the atrocities of war. It's was a very dark and ugly movement meant to express the terror of war and death in hopes that we would learn from the past and not go there again. When this playwright heard that WWII had began, he shot himself in his home in Poland.
ReplyDeleteMany would argue that post WWI oppression led to WWII, at least made the field ripe for a leader to come and inspire the downtrodden with a scapegoat solution. But I think we are learning that aggression begets aggression, and that peace begets peace. At work I've been doing a lot of research on anti-violence networks, and the word is getting out in structured and seemingly-healthy manner. It's hopeful, and in a few years, we will see what the world is looking like.
It is important to know and remember the past.