#7 Nuremburg & some justice for the Holocaust ...

After the realities of our 12 days in the footsteps of Anne Frank & Oskar Schindler, it was only fitting that our tour should end in the German town of Nuremburg - synonymous with justice. 

This is my travel journal I used on the trip - a postcard of Anne & Margot Franks memorial at Bergen Belsen on the cover, a black ribbon to tie it all together. 

I always collect info along the way because it is  too much to take in & you can always return to it again ... 

Driving in to the town was lovely & I wondered to myself why this town was chosen to bring justice to those who wrought such brutality upon those effected by the Holocaust. we chatted amongst ourselves, expressing our hopes for this final stop on our tour; would it give us clarity & closure about the horrific camps we had visited & the monsters who ran them with unbridled brutality? 

However, we first stopped at the spot in Nuremburg where those enormous rally's were held . 

We climbed up the iconic steep concrete blocks to look out over the space where hundreds of thousands gathered to chant & obey, it was clear that this was coming full circle.

From the great height, the speakers (I am not giving names to monsters) would have been tiny figures with loud amplification, whipping up anti Jewish sentiment, the images & recordings online. The elaborate facades are gone but the imposing structure remains, still as intimidating as it was then. 

The scale of the rallies held here were absolutely staggering from the images on the notice board. The elaborate cladding on the podium is gone but it is a huge way to clamber up & look out on to where thousands would have gathered. Part of the field in front is now a park but it is sobering to be in a spot you know from history. 

  

 

 

The traditional town of Nuremburg in its Autumn colours against blue skies - one would scarcely know that this place was chosen to exact justice after WW2 & its name has become synonymous with justice since then. 

The etched window shows the now gone building next door that housed the monstrous prisoners during the trial & where some escaped justice by taking their own lives, 

Images of Court room 600 in the Nuremburg Palace of Justice scenes were shown  on the numerous electronic boards around the museum, the faces of those who were responsible for the unimaginable horror of the war. 

The Trials at Nuremburg were for Crimes against Humanity by Governments against their own people. 

The SS camp leaders & others were incarcerated & tried by an international court. 

The court was in session so we could unfortunately not visit the actual courtroom but spent several hours in the excellent multi-storey museum next door, the realities of the trial well set out & original recordings taking you through the complexities of the trial. 

After several hours, we made our way back out in to the pretty  tree lined streets where not a hint remains of the dark past. 

The courthouse in The Palace of Justice next door was in session so we could not visit it. 

The impressive honey coloured buildings a testament to justice being seen to be done, a purpose it still holds today. 

However, I left feeling not enough had been held to account for the monstrous deeds we had borne witness to across our tour. 

  

My abiding thought as I settled in to my comfortable coach seat for the return journey across Germany then onwards home the following day was that justice was not served to all those thousands involved in this awful period of time. 

Some of those responsible took their own life, others escaped to Spain then onto South America with passports of convenience & some just went back home again to ruined cities. I think we all want to see justice done. 

I came away with some understanding of the complexities of this time in history, I have read dozens of accounts of the war, my interest being in human behaviour & in the Holocaust.  The who, why, where, what, when of this awful time, trying to understand how people can be turned so easily against their neighbours ... 

A close DNA match to my German great grandfathers line that I was hoping would have information to add to his tree that is my brick wall, confided - 'I cannot help you, that side all perished in the camps, we know as much as you do ...' so perhaps it is a deep seated ancestral connection that connects me to this period of history. 

While at Auschwitz Birkenau, I wore two badges pinned to my dark blouse - one was the pin from the Holocaust Memorial Trust they had sent me when I requested information for my students . I backed it on to a hand felted circle 

The second was a Shoah survivors pin I had bought with the imagery of barbed wire, a leaf & a dove. I added stitching to symbolise barbed wire & attached it to red felt with a pin. One brooch for the dead, one for those who survived.  They visited the many Holocaust camps with me ... 

I wrote the last of my Holocaust diary entries on the way home to England, thankful to have the time to arrange my thoughts while it was clear in my mind, to make sense of all I had seen & experienced. 

     

Thank you for taking time to read even part of this journey,  give thanks for peace & blessings, 

Dee