For many years now, I have needed the chance to visit a concentration camp. I am fortunate that we were given the opportunity to visit Bergen-Belsen during this trip. I know how important it is for my heritage to visit these depressing parts of Jewish history, but I also think it is important for others to visit these memorials as well so history does not repeat. I think German schools do a good job of educating their children by having field trips to concentration camps.
I have never been to a concentration camp before, but I have heard stories from people who have gone. Therefore I was able to recognize how different Bergen-Belsen was from other concentration camp memorials. I have always imagined this dark, remote area with remains of where the gas chambers, barracks, and wire fences were once used. Like the camp was frozen in time from the end of the war in 1945. However, Bergen-Belsen was something else. The photos and videos shown in the memorial building were harsh reminders of the horrid past. Outside on the grounds were mass graves to remember those lives that were lost. Even though the shots from the military camp we heard when we arrived were disturbing, the way the graves was almost, if nothing else, a proper reminder of the people who lost their lives. I was only able to see maybe a quarter of the camp, but at least I could visit the graves of thousands of people to let them know they are not forgotten.
I think the memorial was very well done and even though humankind cannot exactly make up for past mistakes, at least they can help us to never forget. The things I saw there will be engraved in my memory forever.
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