“Never Again”: Are We Forgetting the Post-Holocaust Promise?

Has the post-Holocaust world really kept its promise of “never again, never forget”? A visit to Dachau is stirring.

Our post-Holocaust slogan needs to ring true today. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

It’s eerie to stand on the ground where thousands have been killed.

A shiver runs down your spine as you realise you’re visiting a crematorium where fire continued to burn human bodies 24x7. It is difficult to understand human brutality. A place where humanity ceased to exist.

Bodies lying outside the crematorium. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

We are at Dachau, one of the first concentration camps and the only camp to have existed throughout the 12 years of Nazi rule.

“You are Without Rights, Dishonourable and Defenceless”

It all started on 1 April 1933 when the National Socialist Organisation carried out a nationwide boycott against Jewish businesses. A few days later, the Reich government passed the “Law on the restoration of Professional Civil Service” that ordered the dismissal of political opponents and all “non-Aryans” out of state service. All “elements” that “weakened” it or which did not “fit in” were to be removed.

Prisoners line up for a roll call. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

The Dachau camp was set up in 1933 by the German Chief of Police Heinrich Himmelar to hold political prisoners in protective custody. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws institutionalised racial discrimination. There were mass arrests. Thousands were taken into preventive custody and sent to concentration camps, where they had to go through unimaginable brutality.

Bodies lying outside the crematorium. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

Dachau’s administration “officially” recorded taking in over two lakh prisoners, and the deaths of 31,951. Thousands of deaths remained undocumented.

Crematorium in 1944. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

Dachau’s close proximity to Munich – 10 miles north-west of the city where Hitler came to power and where the Nazi Party had its official headquarters – made it a convenient location.

Crematorium today. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

The main gate at Dachau spelt “Arbeit Macht Frei’ which means ‘Work sets you free’.

But it was a false promise.

Gas chamber today. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

It only misled incoming prisoners into believing that the way of securing their freedom was labour.

They never came out. Not until Allied Forces captured the camp on 29 April 1945 to free the 30,000 inhabitants.

Dachau Main Gate with ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ written on it. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

Dachau Camp leader Joseph Jarolin is believed to have said to the new Dachau prisoners in 1941-42:

“You are without rights, dishonourable, and defenceless. You are a pile of shit and that is how you are going to be treated.”

How the Tale of Nazi Germany Affected My Boys

The time spent at Dachau leaves an indelible impression on my boys, aged 14 and 12. Even though they’re having the time of their lives at Sabeeka’s holiday home in Zankenhausen, they tell me that they do not like Germany. In their youthful innocence, they have not been able to separate Hitler from present-day Germany.

Memorial Sculpture by Nandor Gild erected in 1968. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

We have a talk; Hitler, Nazi past, Holocaust, World War II, and how Germany rebuilt itself from complete devastation – everything is discussed. They look at peace and seem to understand life around them a lot better.

Site of execution – by pistol. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

Forgetting history forces you to relive your deadly past. Just look around you today. Donald Trump’s rants against Muslims. Shias and Sunnis fighting against each other in the Middle East. Brits’ outbursts after Brexit. Rising intolerance in India. Killings in Bangladesh. Cops killing Blacks in the US, recently in Minnesota and Louisiana, and its repercussions in Dallas. No, we have not learnt any lessons.

A ditch where ashes from the crematorium were stored. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

But Germany shows us the way out of this mess. The country rose from ashes after the Second World War. Its Nazi past continued to haunt it. It was an embarrassment that would stay with them for time immemorial. But the way forward was not to push it under the carpet. It learnt its lessons well, internalised it, introspected, and became inclusive.

Electrified fence and armed guards made escape impossible. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)

Germany has taken the maximum number of Syrian refugees in the current crisis. While the rest of the world looks at refugees with suspicion – paranoid about the ISIS and terrorism – people of Germany have accepted the immigrants with open arms.

Hans Well of Zankenhausen (a village outside Munich), is a musician by profession and a restorer of historical houses by hobby. He teaches German to the three Syrian families that have taken refuge in his village of 350 people.

We stayed with Hans, and my boys played soccer with a 9-year-old Syrian boy, Umar who Hans was teaching the language to. Bonding over the beautiful game was enough for the boys to feel devastated when Siddhant and Agastya left Munich on the way to Berlin, and then back to India.

“Never Again” - The words are written in Yiddish using Hebrew letters, and in French, English, German and Russian. (Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Ahirwal)  

Human folly of believing in the superiority of one race over others is certainly not a thing of the past. But never was a better time to understand, introspect and remember the words inscribed on the memorial stone at Dachau, “Never Again”.

(Sanjay is Managing Editor at NDTV Worldwide and his role requires him to train senior editorial personnel, editorial teams, specifically in the art of storytelling, reporting and organising editorial workflows. In his words, “A journalist has to be where the story is.” Sanjay has spent his life being in the thick of things. He lives in Gurgaon with his kids, his dogs, and loves gardening, football and a good laugh; his days as a journalist, often fraught with danger, have taught him the value of each.)