Sachsenhausen and the Holocaust museum was an important experience to have. It was frightening to have evidence of the horrors humans can inflict on others. All the pain these people experienced was explicit right in front of me.
One of the most important realizations I made there was the dangers of rhetoric to dehumanize other people. It was frightening how the Nazi’s could convince people to take part in the massacre of the jews who until just before that lived very similar lives to other Germans and Europeans. The enterprise of murdering others was simplified to calculating numbers like a business. To me one of the most important realizations of this is of how often this occurs and goes along with inflicting harm. So, it becomes incredibly important to remember first of all that other people no matter how much we dislike them or their ideas or what they stand for are people too, our brothers and sisters.
Another important thing for me here was the evidence of how disruptive this event was to so many people an effect lingering in Germany today. Some of the most powerful stories for me in the Holocaust museum involved the survivors. It seems impossible for me to consider moving on after all the horrors they experienced in the concentration camps especially losing family members and loved ones to that machine of death the Nazi’s created. Also it is difficult to the Germans of today trying to deal with this in their past. Some of them were connected in some ways to the holocaust and they try to move on and show remorse for what their predecessors did.
All in all for all the memories of horrors contained within the walls of Sachsenhausen and the holocaust museum it is a very important experience for all people to learn from at least once in their lives and I think I gained a great deal from experiencing it firsthand.
