Questionnaires submitted by:
| Marie-Pierre |
Anonymous 1 |
|
| Jason |
Anonymous 2 |
|
| Fabien |
Anonymous 3 |
|
| Hugo |
Anonymous 4 |
|
| Leslie |
Anonymous 5 |
|
| Charlotte F |
Anonymous 6 |
1/ Before we started working on the Nazi concentration camp system, I knew that Auschwitz was a concentration and extermination camp. I didn’t know that Auschwitz was one of the only camps with a selection on arrival.
2/ Yes, I knew that Auschwitz is in Poland, even though we often tend to believe that it is in Germany.
3/ Yes, I already knew the difference between concentration camp and extermination camp, but I didn’t know anything more. The painting done during the course on the concentration camp system clearly explained what separates them.
4/ Of course I knew that there were many dead at Auschwitz, but I didn’t know that there were so many. We can’t expect such a large number.
5/ The duty of memory is a way to transmit this horror so that it never happens again. The goal is for survivors to tell their story so that we can perpetuate it from generation to generation. One cannot ignore such a period in history.
6/ History and Memory are two related terms. History allows us to know what happened before us, so it is the memory of the past. But history allows us to know, while memory allows us to remember.
7/ I have absolutely no representation on Auschwitz. I saw documents showing the camp, but I can’t imagine it before being there. I think I will be surprised when I see this camp, because we can’t imagine such a horror of ourselves.
8/ In this film, we have to answer everyone’s questions about this camp. We must also do our duty of memory, by exposing reality as it is, without cheating. We are not media, we do not seek to attract the public, but to show what Auschwitz really is.
9/ At first, I didn’t want to leave just out of fear. Yet it seemed very interesting to me (if we can use that term). Then, I told myself that I surely would not have the opportunity to make such a trip anymore. I refused at first, but now I really want to visit this camp.
10/ I think these people are wrong. I do not see how anyone can doubt the relevance of such a trip, even if it is short-lived. This trip can only be beneficial for students. We are looking to learn, to see the reality on this camp. That way, we can better remember that such a horror existed. This experience is beneficial for us. Many people I know would like to take this trip. We are lucky enough to be able to do this visit, which will be enriching.
1/ Before the work on the Nazi concentration camp system, Auschwitz evoked for me a place where a crime against humanity had taken place. I knew that different categories of people were taken there and that this camp was run by the SS.
2/ I knew where Auschwitz was located because my middle school teacher, in 3
3/ I didn’t really make the difference. Extermination camp meant for me the extermination of ethnic and political groups, and the concentration camp reminded me more of the gathering of suspected people and the choices to neutralize them or not.
4/ I did not know the exact number of victims. I would have replied several million and said that the Jewish population was the most affected by the massacre.
5/ The expression duty of memory means for me the moral obligation not to forget a period of history and to know how to attach importance in a continuous way to this one. The duty of remembrance should perhaps be accompanied by a work of understanding, for example by knowing the causes that can lead to such a dark historical event in history, and everyone should be able to interpret and understand it, for example, the importance of not allowing once again the unfounded establishment of racial hatred.
6/ History is the knowledge of past events that deserve to be taken into account and memory is the ability to preserve information. The mind can retain memories of the past and can associate them with a representation it has made of this period.
7/ Auschwitz is for me, currently [
8/ Through our film, I would like to show not only the duty of memory and recognition of this period, but also how far human beings are able to go when they are "conditioned" in a context of hatred.
9/ What motivated me to make this trip is the desire to learn more, to deepen concretely and to become a little more aware of how the times work. I also wanted to participate in this trip because I wonder about the reaction that my classmates and I will have, even if we don’t know enough, I think "human" sensitivity will take over.
10/ I think that organizing a trip to Auschwitz is only relevant if it is accompanied by work on the Nazi concentration camp system, in order to be able to face a place of memory, knowing the fundamental elements about it. One should not "trivialize" such an important camp and say to go only in order to be able to say it. Going to Auschwitz, for me, is to want to open our eyes to a reality and, perhaps, to learn a necessary lesson from it.
1/ Auschwitz, I knew it was an extermination camp, but it was vague, I didn’t really know how everything went there, what happened.
2/ I thought Auschwitz was in the east of Germany.
3/ Yes, I was making a difference between the two types of camps, already by their name.
4/ I think I know approximately the number of victims.
5/ For me, the duty of memory is the importance of knowing how to speak, that everything be said without taboo, so as not to forget or even ignore (negationism) what happened. But above all, it is the duty to transmit these emotions and experiences to others.
6/ History allows for memory. But history is more neutral, more general. Memory, on the other hand, calls for feelings, sensations, and emotions; it is more personal and deeper.
7/ Auschwitz is above all a place of massacre, a weapon against humanity, a nightmarish space. But, with hindsight, we still discover a story, a shared memory. This place is a witness to what could have happened; it is major evidence.
8/ First, I would like us to film the story of the deportees who accompany us so that it helps us imagine things, so that we are emotionally charged. Then, I would like to be able to discover the expression of all faces, as well as the different reactions of people. I would like to show the piles of objects and hair, etc., in order to also give space. Finally, I would like us to film the dark, small, closed, unhealthy corners of the camp and to set them against the surroundings of the park, in order to create a contrast with the greenery and the other houses.
9/ First of all, I think this trip can teach me to discover myself in difficult moments and to know my feelings. Then, the historical and cultural interest is important; I could witness a terrible thing that was so far away. Finally, I felt the need to go and see what people in the camp experienced, and how they experienced it.
10/ First of all, I think you can’t deprive people of that; don’t be afraid to show things. On the contrary, I rather think that the younger the students are, the more innocent they are, the more they will be scarred and shocked (but this place has never really served as an example so that there is no longer genocide).
1/ I knew that Auschwitz was a camp where many Jews, prisoners of war, etc. were held and that some (most) died gassed there.
2/ Yes, I knew where Auschwitz was.
3/ I didn’t know exactly the difference between extermination camps and concentration camps. But from the word "extermination", I knew that this was the place where prisoners died.
4/ I did not know the exact number of victims, but I suspected that they were millions.
5/ "Duty of memory" means (for me) to pass on what we know to others who do not know, or not exactly, what happened in Poland, or during other wars. I think that the duty to remember is something important for those who will come after us, knowing what happened and that these atrocities never happen again.
6/ I think that memory is what those who have experienced certain things tell about what happened to show the truth and, quite simply, to be able to talk about it to younger people.
History is what allows us to know the circumstances in which the war took place, why so much violence occurred, etc. History brings memory. And without history, memory would not be transmitted, I think.
7/ From the images we see in J.T., in the broadcasts, we can see what the blocks look like in real life, etc. But I imagine a huge site, with immense buildings and somewhat surrounded by ruins. But, I’m waiting to be there to really see what Auschwitz is.
8/ In the film, I would like to show everything that is representative of the camps, with testimonies from former deportees, which would explain what this or that was at the time of the camps, what they feel when they return to Auschwitz. But, above all, show all the buildings, in fact, everything possible so that people who will see the film and who have never seen Auschwitz can really imagine what it is and thus raise their awareness. It will be like our duty of remembrance.
9/ I want to go to Auschwitz, first of all because what happened there touches me a lot and I want to know more about it. Auschwitz is part of the Second World War and this is a period in our history that interests me enormously. And I think that going to Auschwitz will allow me to know a little more about this war. Going to Auschwitz will allow us (the whole class) to meet former deportees and it will be a beautiful human experience to share what they experienced.
10/ A day trip to discover and understand Auschwitz is very short, especially since the camp is far from Bergerac. And I have the impression that the time it takes for us to be explained, to "visit," etc. the day will have passed quickly and we will not have had time to understand everything. I don’t think it will be irrelevant, but it will be much too short. This day will be a marathon day, but I want to go anyway, because the opportunity to go to Auschwitz won’t come twice.
1/ Auschwitz evoked for me the deportation. I knew it was a camp, but I did not know whether it was a concentration camp or an extermination camp.
2/ I thought Auschwitz was in Germany (because it refers to Nazi Germany).
3/ No
4/ No.
5/ Memory is a duty especially when it comes to such horrible facts. Man’s duty is to be aware of his mistakes and to avoid repeating them.
6/ History is the facts and experiences of men. Memory is the transmission of history.
7/ Auschwitz is the camp that killed the most people. In my eyes, it represents the horror of thousands of men (whether physical or psychological). It is dehumanization.
8/ I think that we should show precisely what we do not see, what we do not imagine, what affects us at the very moment and not what we were thinking about before.
9/ We talk about it a lot without really knowing it, and the subject, even topical, is still quite vague. It’s good to have your own impression.
1/ Auschwitz has always been a horror to me. I knew a little about the subject, but it was mostly about the Jewish deportation. It’s only this year that I really became interested in the prison system.
2/ Yes.
3/ Yes. But I had a bit of trouble with the camps where we used to work.
4/ By heart, it was 6 million Jews. I didn’t know the figures for the other victims.
5/ For me, "duty of memory" really looks like an obligation. But it is true that in order not to repeat such a massacre again, we must raise awareness among men as much as possible. And above all, our generation.
6/ The memory that can be maintained comes from a historical fact. All the past has built our present. By not forgetting our past, we act on two things: men and their common present.
7/ A silent place, still motionless in shock.
8/ I don’t know. We see the images, but we in the images are something else.
9/ This is a unique opportunity. I do it for myself and my conscience.
10/ Voices are still being raised. Participation in this trip is not mandatory. Everyone has had a choice, and everyone is responsible for their choice. And, in any case, a day was not too short for me to do my own "duty of memory".
1/ For me, Auschwitz evoked the concentration and extermination camp with all the horrors that one can imagine and especially discover. The first image that sticks out in my mind is the entrance to the camp with the kind of tower, perhaps not to fit inside the walls or simply because it is the most common representation given of Auschwitz. Auschwitz is also, in a way, for me, the camp that symbolizes extermination, the Shoah. I had already been interested in this question in 3
2/ I knew he was in Poland.
3/ I’m not sure anymore, but I think I was doing a little one. However, it became clearer this year, notably thanks to knowledge of concentration camps in other situations.
4/ I had the figures in my possession, but I don’t remember knowing them by heart. To be frank, even today I don’t think I can give very exact figures. I’m not sure if I’m wrong when I say that it’s close to 7 million. The very (too) large number of victims contributes to the horror of the phenomenon, but the execution of such a project doesn’t need a phenomenal number to be frightening. Moreover, the victims have already been considered a lot as numbers. I am more interested in the traces left, photos, testimonies; however, I do not deny the importance of knowing the extent of the disaster. But, as a general rule, I have difficulty remembering the figures, although these deserve an effort.
5/ The duty of memory is to become aware of events that are, to say the least, not very pleasing of the past. Dare to confront and research elements on the subject to know as much as possible. The work is then to expand knowledge to other people and other generations, without diminishing its scope. It means being able to remember, learn lessons, pass on and prevent as much as possible from happening again. It is undoubtedly a harder work to perform than to state, would only be in the awareness.
6/ I think that history gives access to memory. That they are linked. History is the enunciation and research of facts; memory consists in making a judgment, more or less personal, and in drawing lessons from it. However, there is already a beginning of the work of memory among some historians. The two can (should?) mix.
7/ They have not fundamentally changed, but they have become clearer. I think more of the place of memory that is currently there. I think that this year has not yet brought me all the knowledge it will have given me at the end of it. I still have some sources to use, in addition to travel, to further clarify daily life in the death camps and probably other things.
8/ I would first like to show the context, the other camps, the goals of extermination, by way of introduction. Then, specify the life and death at Auschwitz, in particular. The creation of the camp, the organization, the arrival of prisoners, the distribution, the appeals, the experiments (everything to be precisely treated however may be difficult). I would also like to show how the transmission of memory is organized at Auschwitz, how the camp was reconstructed, and what elements were highlighted.
9/ First, I know that I want to go to Auschwitz, but I am not sure if I can do it alone. If I want to go to Auschwitz, it is because since I became interested in extermination during the Second World War, I need to see it, to learn more and more, perhaps to be sure never to forget or minimize. I need to get just as close to what happened, face to face. It is also a feeling about the deportees, to get closer to them and their suffering, to try to understand them better, even if I don’t think I can ever really know, having never experienced it. It is a rather difficult feeling to put in writing and to formulate.
10/ It all depends on what the controversy depends. If it’s the trip itself that is being discussed, I think it’s a good thing, especially since there aren’t so many opportunities. In addition, the trip is done in a specific context that allows it to bear more fruit than the trip alone. If the problem is the duration of the trip, then I think it’s true that a day is a bit short, especially when you consider the travel time. The day will be busy and it will be difficult to see everything, to perceive everything; this is not very conducive to commemoration and meditation. However, if the trip were longer, I suppose it would also be more expensive and, in that case, less accessible. In conclusion, I think that, even if improvements can prove beneficial, the initiative of such a trip is useful for memory and this is what is sought.
1/ Before preparing this trip, Auschwitz evoked for me, one of the camps among which the horrors of the leaders of the Ille Reich executed all their contempt, all their hatred. A kind of allegory of fascism. I must admit that I didn’t really make the difference between Auschwitz and other camps, and I didn’t know which camp was extermination or not.
2/ I didn’t know where this camp was. To be honest, I located it near Austria...
3/ I was only vaguely making the difference between extermination and concentration camps. Our third-grade teacher (M. Dauriac from the Collège Henri de Navarre, Coutras, Gironde) had talked about it, but that was not something to write in our notebooks... The difference came from the opening of the excerpts from
4/ The number of victims of the final solution is 5 million.
5/ "Duty of memory" means for me a timeless tribute to the victorious dead.
6/ History should be useful in thinking about what we could do: use the mistakes of the past to avoid making them again. Memory would rather be for me, an honor to pay tribute to those who died from the mistakes of the past that history shows us.
7/ At the time of writing, I see Auschwitz as one of the extermination camps, of a surprising magnitude, revealing the extent of the measures taken by the Reich for the final solution. I read Marie Claude Vaillant Couturier’s judgment to the leaders of Hitler’s Reich, and it reflects exactly how I view this camp now. But the call, in particular, evokes much more things for me than before.
8/ I will see a route, especially that of the condemned, and a representation of the famous extermination block of sad memory...
There would be so many things to show, but how not to water down some shots by filming others?
9/ Not going on this trip because it upsets our daily lives is indifference, insulting indifference. I am going on this trip for a memory assignment, I want to see for myself, not just through interposed images or what can be told.
10/ Some doubt the relevance of this trip, because they doubt the relevance of the students. But I sincerely hope that this trip will not be without repercussions in this class...
1/ The name of Auschwitz did not evoke any word to me, only a single image, that of a bulldozer pushing bodies to gather them in heaps, it is the image I have in mind every time I hear the name of Auschwitz.
2/ Yes I knew that Auschwitz was in Poland.
3/ Yes, I was making a difference.
4/ I don’t know the exact figures for the victims, since he is still contesting them, but the figure I have taken is 6 million deaths from the Shoah.
5/ For me, the expression "memory duty" is too vague. Memory only evokes the past; I don’t think that working on the past alone is enough, since even with a work of memory, genocides like Rwanda were not avoided when they could have been. I believe that the work of memory is a good thing, but it must lead to actions and not to observations.
6/ I make a big difference between history and memory. History would be like a "raw" information, which lets the reader make his own vision of a fact, while memory can be different according to each individual and undergo reinterpretations.
7/ My performance on Auschwitz is something hard for me. Many people tell me, you’re going to "see" Auschwitz, I don’t think I’m going to "see" Auschwitz, I’m going to imagine Auschwitz. Because the camp is no longer the same; for me, it has become an image that is offered to "visitors." a very different image of the 1945 camp, since there is grass, no more body dust, no more smell, you can only imagine the worst and tell yourself it was here. Despite this image, I feel a visceral need to go.
8/ Given the representation I have of Auschwitz, I won’t know what to film in particular. I think I will make the final plan on the grass under the barbed wire to say, the Nazis tore it off so that the inmates wouldn’t eat it, now we let it grow to give us a "hope".
9/ I won’t be able to explain my motivations, I know it’s a visceral need to go there and I don’t explain it. I know that I am afraid of feeling nothing, and of passing as a monster in the eyes of others, because as I said, for me, Auschwitz has become a name to be placed on a place. The idea that we sell postcards reinforces me in this idea, I tell myself it has become an image and I have trouble telling myself that one can "visit" Auschwitz, when you think that 60 years ago, we wanted to flee this place.
10/ I don’t know what to make of it since I myself have a rather paradoxical opinion about this place, but I feel the need to go there. That’s all I can answer to that question.
1/ An extermination camp like any other (understand: not distinguishable from another camp).
Somewhere in Poland.
3/ Yes, although they both cause many deaths.
4/ No, but I knew they were very numerous (I estimated several million).
5/ To perpetuate the memory of some people, so that what happened is not forgotten.
6/ History is objective, dealing with just one subject in general, while Memory is objective and more targeted.
7/ Like a place that has lost its horror with the "tourism" style reconstruction.
8/ Show that it is impossible to understand/feel what happened here.
9/ Not considering myself as someone sensitive, I impose on myself a test to see how I would behave in front of a place that has made one of the largest numbers in history. I also want to see if I can understand Hitler.
10/ Some high school students will never be able to understand what happened there. I know that I would not be able to "honor" the memory of the dead inside (cynical thoughts inevitably cross my mind). I also believe that about 70% of those who leave do not care to honor the memory of people whose death will have no impact on their little happy life...
PS: I may have shocked you by my words (written). If that’s the case, I apologize for it, but I think I said what many people think.
1/ The name of Auschwitz evoked for me the proof of what is worse in human being. This evoked a pain, a suffering, an unspeakable heartbreak perpetrated on thousands of men, women and children. I knew the horrors that raged there, but never pretended to fully understand what happened there and I think that no one except the deportees has the ability to assimilate the scale of the phenomenon. So I knew the facts largely because I discussed them with my previous teachers, but also with my family.
2/ I did know where Auschwitz was.
3/ I made the difference between extermination and concentration camps. I knew that the first ones were synonymous with certain and almost systematic death.
4/ I did not know the exact figures of the victims, but was aware that it was counted in millions.
5/ The "duty of memory" is, in my opinion, a way not to forget so as never to offer an opportunity for such events to take shape again. But it is also a question of not ignoring the pain of millions of men for mere comfort and unconsciousness.
6/ History is based on facts and analyses in an almost surgical way, with objectivity and a sometimes disconcerting yet indispensable distance, while Memory involves personal feelings and reflections.
7/ My representations of Auschwitz have hardly changed, but they are clarified because some things, which I was aware of, became even more "concrete" and "graspable".
8/ In the film, I would like to show that it is about human beings above all, people who have suffered and who should not be forgotten. I would like to show that hatred leads to nothing and push away the fascist thoughts which are experiencing a new boom today, without any consideration for past events, as monstrous as they may be.
9/ I dread this journey a lot, but it seems essential to me to approach an understanding, although still abstract, of the horror and suffering of men; and above all to come back with a message of peace, accessible to everyone thanks to the film we are going to make. Of course, not all consciences will agree with what we want to demonstrate, others will scoff at it wildly, but if this can change the perception of life and the world around some, It will be a slight victory, with the appearance of faint glimmers of hope for building a better world.
10/ I think that suppressing trips to Auschwitz would risk encouraging the resurgence of racism and Nazism in a current society where cemeteries are desecrated by young, unconscious idiots who do not understand a quarter of the Nazi doctrine and know nothing about this regime devastating and irrational.
1/ Before, Auschwitz for me was a concentration camp like any other, I could imagine what had happened there, but I would never have thought that one day I would go to the place where thousands of people were massacred.
2/ I knew it was in Poland, but I didn’t know where exactly.
3/ No, I thought there was only one type of camp; what I imagined was closer to a concentration camp than to an extermination camp.
4/ I think there were a million dead at Auschwitz and about 5 million in all.
5/ The duty of memory is to transmit and tell what happened to future generations so that never again such a horror occurs.
6/ I think that history is primarily used to understand past events in order to better understand current societies; whereas memory is rather about knowing what happened before, so as not to repeat the same mistakes.
7/ It’s difficult to imagine Auschwitz now, because every time I try to imagine it, I see the skeletal people you see in most documents about Auschwitz; in fact, it’s almost impossible to imagine Auschwitz without its deportees.
8/ I would like us to show the places that the prisoners traveled in a day and what their life at the camp was about.
9/ I believe that if I want to go to Auschwitz, it is to see the camp better with my own eyes, as the deportees saw.
10/ I think that students should not be forced to go there, but I think that going to Auschwitz can only be beneficial for everyone’s memory.
1/ Before working on Auschwitz, the name reminded me of little. I thought it was a concentration camp, that serious things had happened there, but I didn’t know many details, so I wasn’t too worried about that.
2/ Yes, I knew that Auschwitz was in Poland.
3/ No, I didn’t make any differences; for me, the gas chambers were in the concentration camps.
4/ No, I had no idea!
5/ It’s a bit of something I feel, the "duty to remember," it’s for all those who have suffered, for those who are still suffering from terrible wars like the 2
6/ History is what we need to know about our past, about our ancestors, while memory is about thinking, thanking, celebrating those who have lived and suffered, not forgetting that there was a life before us.
7/ Today, I think that Auschwitz doesn’t look like much anymore and yet, I know that terrible, abominable things happened in this place.
8/ I think that even if it must be shocking, we have to show the horror of the camps, that is to say the reality of this genocide, because people do not realize what really happened there. We get a picture of the Shoah, but it is very far from reality, we cannot imagine the horror that reigned there. But, in any case, Auschwitz today looks like everything we could see in France; it is its history that matters. It is necessary to show the reactions of those who see Auschwitz, because the place is deserted, but the knowledge is in each one of us.
9/ Yes, I think I have known vaguely my motivations. I believe that I "need" to see, because we all live in a "perfect" world compared to the world in which the victims of the Shoah lived, and it’s important for me to know the evil, we are very lucky in France and we don’t realize poverty, the suffering, the evil and the horror that may have arrived on our Earth.
10/ I understand that some people doubt the relevance of this trip. Not everyone knows the reality of the genocide; I myself am very afraid of feeling nothing, of being indifferent when what happened is really awful. But you can’t control yourself, you can’t control your emotions, I’m a bit apprehensive, but I really feel the need to "see," "be there."
1/ Before we started working on the Nazi concentration camp system and preparing this trip, the name of Auschwitz evoked for me the concentration and extermination camps set up by Hitler and his "friends" when he really began to take power, in 1933. But for me it was also the most well-known of the camps, the example of cruelty, fear, death, dehumanization which were, I believe, the main characteristics of the Nazi camps. Finally, Auschwitz evoked for me, of course, the number of Jewish victims, who were the most numerous, but also gypsies, the disabled, homosexuals
2/ I knew that Auschwitz is in Poland, not far from the German border.
3/ I didn’t know the exact difference between an extermination camp and a concentration camp. For me, an extermination camp meant a quick death, by gas chambers or crematoria, a concentration camp a slow death by shame, work, hunger, cold, fear.
4/ I didn’t know exactly the victim figures.
5/ For me, the expression "duty of remembrance" means to show past generations that we have not forgotten what they lived through, that their suffering and actions still serve us today to build our lives and it is a proof of what man is capable of doing. But if we know what it is capable of, we may be better able not to get carried away by extremist movements and have a more objective view of the world around us.
6/ History relates facts and is built on statistics and an external analysis of the past. Memory comes from testimonies and takes us inside what past generations have experienced. History interests us, memory touches us. That is why we cannot mix the two.
7/ But representations about Auschwitz have changed little since we started working on the concentration camp system. What has changed is the role we have on memory, and the more we advance in this work, the more I find that some people, wanting too much from memory, are killing it.
8/ In this film, I would like to show that the Shoah is not just numbers and calculations, but also people who still remember it, and that we, poor little children who have never known the concentration camp system, cannot allow ourselves to say, whatever our information is, that we know.
9/ The motivations that led me to make this trip are the desire to disgust me a little more of Humanity, but also a need to know and a certain way of telling me that our life is a real paradise.
10/ I think that many people nowadays believe that their quiet little life is a hell. Something that, for me, is false. Perhaps a short visit that shows so little of the horror that the concentration camp system was would do them good.
1/ Auschwitz evoked for me a large concentration camp and not one of extermination, labor, and concentration that was at the origin of the genocide of the Jews. I thought there was only one camp, when in reality Auschwitz is a group of several camps.
Yes, in Poland.
3/ The extermination camps are camps where the goal is to put people to death as industrially, in cha ne fashion, while in the concentration camps, death is slow, it takes place over the course of days, at the same time as a dehumanization.
4/ About one million victims.
5/ "Duty of memory" is to bear witness to the suffering, the horrors that all these people have experienced. To transmit a memory of these peoples and above all to hide nothing, that the future populations know what happened, realize the atrocity. The "duty to remember" is like defending ideals that have long been forgotten, such as human dignity.
6/ History is larger than memory. History will be different from memory in relation to explanations. Indeed, history will expand on many levels (economic, social, political, cultural, religious), but will also be able to deny memory or simply criticize it.
7/ Auschwitz is for me the symbol, the emblem, of Nazi barbarism. In it, I see a pile of corpses, people who no longer have any desire to live, completely dehumanized. All means are good to show prisoners that they are reduced to nothing: the wagons in which the deportees are no more than cattle, the tattooed number, the humiliation ceaselessly; Auschwitz is only an industrial organization in which hair, the teeth, the clothes of the deportees, will serve as raw materials.
8/ The entrance to the camp, what the prisoners first saw before being locked up in the camps: the main entrance of Auschwitz, the gas chambers, the dormitories, the infirmary with the office of the d
9/ We talk a lot about it, so many people have died there, it’s like a "duty of memory" to go there and be able to tell what you discovered.
10/ I don’t understand why some people oppose it, it’s very important, we have this opportunity to discover, certainly something horrible, but which still marked the whole world and many minds forever. We talk about it in class, but being able to see the facts on the spot helps raise awareness among some people who may not be able to understand the seriousness of the scourge.
1/ I had already heard of Auschwitz and knew that it was an extermination camp made for the Jews. I didn’t know that political opponents, gypsies, homosexuals, etc., were also deported.
2/ I knew it was in an Eastern European country, but not exactly where.
3/ For me, concentration camps represented the place where the deportees were placed to perform forced labor and extermination camps, the place from which one never returned, the "death camps".
4/ I learned the number of victims from the 3rd
5/ "Duty of memory" means first of all that we must not forget the victims. As time goes by, all the witnesses of the war disappear. Our generation has the duty to pass on to future generations, who will have to be satisfied with written and filmed works, this notion of "never again" and will have to make them aware of this terrible period. It is a heavy burden, because having not lived through this period, we will never have on them the impact that a deportee or an actor in the war can have; we will never be able to pass on to them as they do the horror that was the war.
Future generations will not have the privilege of learning and hearing from real witnesses.
But, this "duty of remembrance", we owe it to all the victims, whatever their religion or nationality, because no human being should endure what they have endured.
It can be frightening that we have been entrusted with the task of instilling in future generations the notions of "never again" because, if a Third World War were to break out, there would be a sense of failure for us, but also for all the victims who died for nothing, because in the end, their deaths did not even make men think.
6/ History takes up everything: the political, economic and social context of the time, the gears of the Nazi system, totalitarian regimes, etc. Memory is more rooted in the horror of war and its victims.
7/ I see Auschwitz as a kind of Oradour-sur-Glane, completely in ruins, but I think that Auschwitz will have more effect on an emotional and psychological level.
8/ I would like to show the reactions of the students towards the camps.
9/ I wanted to make this trip because no matter how many people read works, watch films and listen to testimonies, the fact of being in Auschwitz opens up new horizons for us and a different vision of this place plunges us directly into the context of deportations. I think that this visit will have a much greater and stronger effect on me than any document, because one becomes aware of things only when they are in front of you.
10/ I think they are right, because a day is too short because you arrive shocked and you don’t have time to pause to reflect and visit Auschwitz as it should be.
1/ The name of Auschwitz evoked for me the worst of concentration camps and Nazi horror. However, my memories of college were not enough to measure the reasons and the extent of the disaster. Moreover, as the years have passed, the survivors have recently agreed to testify about their experience with middle school students.
2/ I didn’t know exactly where Auschwitz was located. For me, the camp was in Germany!
3/ I knew both sides of the Nazi system, but only used the term "concentration camp" to refer to the universe where the atrocities of the Nazi system took place.
4/ The exact number of victims was unknown to me, but I suspected its importance.
5/ The expression "duty of remembrance" represents the obligation not to forget and to transmit knowledge to future generations so that they are aware of the reality of the past. Talking about these events can help prevent them from recurring; even if, unfortunately, other genocides have occurred since the Shoah (cf. the testimony of Velibor Colic).
6/ History is a science, it serves to describe, explain, study events of the past, facts. Memory contains a judgment, it is not a science, it is a duty for citizens. However, history is, of course, indispensable to memory.
7/ At the moment, it is impossible for me to imagine the atmosphere of Auschwitz. Everything that appeals to sensations is very vague anyway, despite the testimonies, photographs, and even the journey that help us understand it. I think we can’t really imagine Auschwitz if we haven’t experienced it.
8/ I think it should be shown that:
* Peace is fragile, and the horror of the camps can resurface in any era. Moreover, it is still present in some countries around the world.
* Efforts for peace must be permanent
* We must fight against all political excesses that could harm men in any country, especially the far right.
9/ This trip will help me get a clear idea of the subject. I think going to the scene is the best way to report on it. Moreover, I am taking this trip because it is offered to me and I think that I will never have the opportunity or the courage to go on it alone, even in a few years.
10/ People who doubt the relevance of organizing a day at Auschwitz, then consider the memory of the Shoah useless. They often have no knowledge of the subject and therefore speak without the slightest notion. Their ideas should therefore not be taken into account. Despite their political convictions, a few history lessons on the concentration camp system might be useful to them! I think that there are unfortunately more of them than we think; would their ideas agree with those of the Nazis? In any case, these reactions clearly demonstrate the need for remembrance and reinforce the answers given to question 8.
1/ The name Auschwitz evoked for me a place where many humans died, I knew that horrible things had happened there. In 3
2/ Yes, I knew that Auschwitz was in Poland, only I did not really know the reason.
3/ I was only making a very vague distinction between the two. I knew there was a difference, but that death was the way out for both.
4/ No, I only knew that there were a lot of victims, but it was unclear.
5/ I don’t know if I will (very) succeed in explaining what "memory duty" means to me, but I will try. means: "from the moment you know, when you know something concrete in which you believe and that this 'something' awakens within you 'feelings' and well, you don’t want to, but the need to repeat it, to pass it on to those around you"
With the Shoah, from the moment we feel revolt, hatred, and pain, it is no longer a "duty" but a need for memory. This "duty to remember" fills the feeling of powerlessness that one experiences, or at least that I experience. And often we "run up against" people to whom the name of Auschwitz says nothing. Others do not want to hear about it.
6/ Memory is what we keep of an "event", we think about it, we comment on it, we talk about it so as not to forget it. History is about tracing certain lines. It’s as if we were redrawing a painting by a great painter. It’s telling things so that they can be imagined.
In fact, I find it quite difficult to define certain things, and here that’s the case.
7/ Today my representations on Auschwitz are different. Thousands of people have given their lives there, and as if it wasn’t already bad enough to die in that form ("in the shower"), they were thrown into crematoria. I know that Auschwitz was the place that served as a "factory" for industrial killing; everything was set up by men who, apart from this "work" they were doing, were normal. Most had their villas a few kilometers from Auschwitz, with their families
The most terrible thing is that it was a man who decided to exterminate other men because, by birth, they belonged to the Jews.
And every time, we learn new horrors, unthinkable things. How could anyone (it’s true) really believe that it happened?
Yet I believe in it and at my best, I would try to convey what we will see, to share what I know.
There is also the fact of still having people alive who I deeply respect, who are still here to tell us what they have experienced. It seems even truer that way and even more atrocious as well. Honestly, I’m apprehensive about the trip and I wonder if I’ll be able to hold on, because it will cause a shock, that’s for sure, but how big will it be? I’ve already had nightmares about it
8/ Honestly, I don’t really know. Well, yes, well, I don’t know. You see a lot of images on TV, we should proceed differently, but how exactly, I don’t know. You have to show everything because nothing is essential, only it will have to be done in a structured way.
9/ A desire to know, to see, to then retransmit.
10/ The voices rising that doubt the relevance of this trip may not be entirely wrong. I think that for this trip to be positive, you have to be prepared for it (which we did, for example) and have understood what the Shoah is. You also have to have a purpose.