Crime, Punishment and Human Rights, June 19

Only on HIA would one begin the day in a high-security prison and end it playing street basketball against a team of 10-year-olds. Our activities fell within the broad themes of 'Crime, Punishment, and Human Rights'. In the morning we toured the Vridsløselille State Prison, home to up to 241 of Denmark's approximately 3500 prisoners. Vridsløselille is one of Denmark's few 'closed prisons', where inmates serve some of the longest prison sentences given by the Danish justice system (a maximum of 20 years). The prison is structured on the principle of 'normalization' - trying to create an ordinary environment for the inmates, where their only punishment is the loss of their liberty to leave the prison. While the regular cells looked comfortable and the inmates were free to socialize with each other, work or study, have leisure time, and cook their own meals, we also visited 'the hole', where prisoners are put in isolation or even fixated if they are a threat to themselves or others.
The visit sparked many discussions between the American and European fellows, as the Danish prison was a sharp contrast to the American prison system, which is based much more on the idea of punishment and retributive justice. Some of the Americans even wondered if anyone ever committed crimes in order to have what appeared to be a fairly comfortable life in a Danish prison (forgetting that Denmark is a welfare state and a certain standard of living is virtually guaranteed for all residents!)

This debate continued all the way back to the Danish Institute for Human Rights, where Mrs. Cecilia Decara (a senior fellow!) presented her work in educating the Danish police force on human rights, discrimination, and the recording of hate crimes. After being presented with a case study, we debated the definition of hate crimes and how they should be punished differently from 'regular crimes'.

We finished the day with a visit to one of the GAM3's game zones - an integration project using street activities and basketball. Game zones are designed to attract minority youth by bringing basketball to their neighborhoods and create links to Danish society and empower the youth.
Some of the fellows joined the street basketball tournament, and made it to the finals (against teams of 10-year-olds). We also enjoyed healthy food cooked by GAM3's chef, music, and street dancing.

-Mette and Sarah

Team HIA after defeating "Team Westside Gangsters" 9-8

Religion, antisemitism, anti-islamicism, June 18

Religion, antisemitism, antiislamicism (permit me to make up a word) and integration were the topics of the day. They overlapped somewhat in the various presentations but each topic presents it’s own varied problems.


Our first speaker was Mr. Tim Jensen, a lecturer at the university of Copenhagen with a specialty in the history of religion. As an atheist he views himself to be in the religious minority in Denmark and it is from that context that he presented a challenging analysis of the majority Christian religion of Denmark. As a good historian he began with some background information, telling us that of Denmark’s 100 registered minority religions, 3/4 of them were Christian, and that of those who actually practice the religion they identify with, only a minuscule minority probably 1 or 2 percent or the population practice a non-Christian religion. Now this is certainly a surprising number considering the firestorm of anti-immigrant sentiment in this country, but to me the more shocking thing is that Denmark has “registered religions.”

The state here actually controls who can be a registered leader of a religious group and the state still funds the majority Lutheran/Peoples church. Additionally, the government has a minister of ecclesiastical affairs and levies taxes to pay for the church’s administration. How does this work? How is it that the overwhelmingly secular Danish society support this? Mr. Jensen’s answer is that the Danes have a special kind of religion, they actually are Christian, even if they don’t go to church, because they choose to pay taxes to support the church. In fact some 83 percent of the population are paying members of the People’s Church! Mr. Jensen assured us that the Danes like their money to be theirs, so for them to be willing to pay for the church means they actually support the church. He also offered an interesting view of liberal Christianity in the Danish context that helped explain this paradox further. Even though the Danes may not look like a Christian society by American standards, (i.e. they don’t go to church, profess faith, talk about God, believe Jesus is the son of God and so on...) they do think of themselves as more enlightened or refined Christians, their religion is private and dignified, so much so that they don’t even need to go to Church. So, in Mr. Jensen’s words, the Danes want the church to be on the hill or the corner, a familiar and comforting institution, but they don’t need to actually use the Church.

Mr. Jensen tried to explain this by saying that the Church has been present in Danish society for 1000 years, and has slowly brainwashed the population. My analysis is that if the Church is willing to be controlled by the state through approval of it’s clergy, and paid for by taxing a non-believing population, the Church itself has been secularized right along with Danish society.

The second speaker of the day was less challenging personally, but certainly quite interesting. Mrs. Cecilia Felicia Stockholm Banke, a journalist and academic who’s studies focused on anti-religious sentiment in Denmark and Europe, gave us a brief lecture on antisemitic and antimuslim attitudes in Denmark. Considering the Danes role in rescuing their Jewish populations in WWII, the recent emergence of antisemitic attitudes in Denmark is rather disturbing. Mrs. Banke helped us to grasp the complexity of the situation and fostered a good discussion among our group. Her work focused on elementary education on the Holocaust and it was through that lense that we analyzed antisemitism. It seems that among all Danes, including immigrants, there is an understanding of the horrors of the Holocaust, but when it comes to current views on Jews, there is an emerging antisemitism that seems to be tied to the State of Israel and the Palestinian conflict. Animosity and fear of the Israeli state has turned itself into extreme positions, typified by the famous denial of the Holocaust by the higher-ups in Iran, and also reflected to a lesser extent in some of Denmark’s immigrant school children. It would seem that antimuslim attitudes in the general population also lend fuel to the fire of antisemitism in some immigrants, as they blame a worldwide antimuslim attitude on the Bush administration, Isreal, and the UN who are all collaboration against Islamic states in the middle east.

This presentation in itself was interesting, but it was Mrs. Banke’s parting thought that gave me the most pause. She asked whether by giving the Jews a homeland in Palestine, Europe was simply washing its hands of its own antisemitic problems. There was enough guilt after WWII for the Eurpoean nations to want to do something for the Jews, but it was also convenient to get rid of them peacefully by giving them a state. If this is the case, the current animosity towards Muslim immigrants can be taken in a much more somber light, for the history of Eurpoe’s treatment of minorities in certainly not improved at all if the Jewish homeland is only a result of convenience and not of honest repentance and concern.

The days meetings took a on a less serious note as we headed to the Ministry of Integration. I had expected to have a challenging debate there, as the ministry is certainly at the center of many of Denmark’s more restrictive laws and immigration policies, but the head of the integration department conveniently couldn’t speak long enough for questions. He spoke to us briefly about unemployment among the immigrant populations, and then left, giving the floor to a team of ministry employees who are running a mentoring program for immigrant school children and youth. Neither of them could speak to any policy issues, so the chance for hard debate was lost.

We ended the day with a visit to a mosque and a talk on Islam by Mr. Abdul Wahid Pederson, a Danish convert to Islam. The most striking aspect of the visit was to see the building itself. The mosque is built in a refurbished warehouse, with really no marking on its exterior of what lies within. Inside, the building is quite nicely done, with careful tile work and very Islamic feeling art and architecture. This essentially hidden mosque portrayed powerfully to me the depth of antimuslim sentiment in this society. That this group could not build freely or even mark their building clearly is a strong indication of the fear that surrounds Islam here.

Sadly, this day did not offer much in the way of hope. If Mr. Jensen is right and 83 percent of the population considers themselves Christian and considers their kind of religion to be proper, this country will have an awfully hard time ever figuring out how to accept a minority in which many people take their faith seriously enough to interrupt their schedules 5 times a day to pray. All I can suggest is that this country institute a strict separation of church and state, thereby truly privatizing religion, and opening up the possibility of religious freedom for non-Christians and Christians alike.

-Jonathan Miner

Visiting the Danish Parliament, June 15

The rainy Friday started with a presentation on Iraq by the Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs Mogens Lykketoft. Reflecting on the war in Iraq from a human rights perspective, he went over both the catastrophic situation in Iraq now, and some of the major faulty decisions responsible for the current situation. Amongst them were the decision to install democracy in a failed state by force, the drastic De-Ba'athication measures initiated by Paul Bremer, and the American ignorance of their own limitation - if not technical and military ones, then political ones: Iraq illustrates the case, because the challenge was laying not with the invasion, but with taking control of the country. The former was quite a success, the latter however, proves that not every problem can be solved single-handedly with the US military. Hopefully, in the future there will be more hesitation, before the world embarks on a military project to instill democracies. A lot of questions were raised about the current
responsibilities of the coalition towards the Iraqis, refugees and others, as well as questions on the future path to be taken by the coalition of the willing. The conclusion was that the troops will have to remain for a long time, but that the coalition "went in for the wrong reasons, and is getting out for the wrong reasons".
- Natalie

Meeting a number of speakers within the area of human and minority rights has one disadvantage: They all ? more or less ? agree. With each other. And with us. Meeting Kenneth Kristensen was different. Head of the Danish People's Party youth wing, Kristensen is tough on immigrants, eager to put Danish interests first, and sceptical towards other religions than Christianity. We met him at Christiansborg, seat of the Danish parliament, on a rainy Friday centring on the leader shift in the social liberal "Radical Left" - a party Kristensen "really, really dislikes for letting in 300.000 immigrants who are impossible to integrate". As we spoke with Kenneth Kristensen, the new "Radical Left" leader Margrethe Vestager had already articulated her wish to see a new government "independent of the Danish People's Party". Although a similar wish may exist in our group, the debate with Kenneth Kristensen was calm, yet not without emotions when he concluded that you can't be Danish and Muslim at
the same time. "You have to ask yourself what you're loyal to," Kristensen said. "Is it Denmark? Or is it Islam??

- Mads

Back to School, June 14

On Thursday our team ventured into Nørrebro. (what a reporter from ”60 minutes” dubbed ”the Muslim quarter of Copenhagen”). We were here greeted by an energetic school principle who is very engaged in the integration debate. An excitement arose among us when we were told that we were going to visit a 5^th grade English class. Here we experienced the reversed situation where we the ones answering the pupils’ many questions about America. One of the kids said to the teacher: “ask about fat people”. The teacher told the boy that he should ask the question himself. The boy stood up: “Is it true that people in America are fat?” This was one of the many thoughtful reflections we had that day…

-Andreas

Open questions and dialogue

Andreas, Enes and Neil debating

Team Copenhagen members have encountered such fascinating lecturers that their questions have been both abundant and provocative. However, one member pointed out an interesting observation on translation and "open questions": many fellows tend to pose closed questions with phrases such as "don't you think that..." or *isn't it true that..." in a way that seems to include an implicit value judgement. This may be a consequence of direct translation--or perhaps just evidence that fellows often feel very strongly about the issues that speakers raise. Nonetheless, it is also a good opportunity to pay more attention to our language and remember that truly open questions (for example, "what do you think about..." or "do you think it's true that...") may leave more room for an even more open dialogue.

Contemporary human rights dilemmas, June 13

HIA Fellows have been wrestling with questions of contemporary human rights since they convened in Berlin, but today Team Copenhagen had the chance to discuss these issues directly. Senior Fellows Caroline Nyvang and Helene Ratner presented their project Free2Choose, a human rights educational project that targets 14-18-year-old adolescents. Their discussion seminars, regarding contemporary human rights dilemmas such as homophobic rap lyrics, neo-Nazi demonstrations and public displays of religious symbols. Our group watched the Free2Chosse video, took the survey and discussed the most controversial question; Should the Polish church be allowed to express homophobic sentiments? Interestingly, initially every American in the group agreed that the Polish Church should have freedom of expression. The small-group debate was heated, particularly hinging on the separation of church and state in Poland. Many fellows agreed to disagree, but everyone concurred that Free2Choose was of great educational value and offered some suggestions for improvement. Not only did Fellows offer constructive criticism, but Caroline and Helene also inspired Team Copenhagen with ideas for action projects after the summer program.

Politiken editor Tøger Seidenfaden stimulated some similarly contentious debate in his discussion of public display of religious symbols, particularly the headscarf. He articulated distinctions between the question of the veil in France and other European countries, hypothesizing that Denmark’s current xenophobic and Islamaphobic political climate contributes to an especially antagonistic argument against the public display of religious symbols in Denmark. Fellows were impressed with his analysis and generally agreed that, if religious symbols are to be banned in public, the rule must apply equally for all religions.

Neil greeting Tøger Seidenfaden after his presentation

Finally, Team Copenhagen wrapped up the day at the Danish MuseumArt, where soon-to-be former Director Allis Helleland celebrated her upcoming move to Oslo with strawberries, chocolate, and champagne.

-Helle, Dijana and Laura

Visiting Kofoeds School, June12

The link between economic growth and social welfare is one of the most hotely debated topics in welfare state economies today. Must states cut social spending to expand economic growth? Although many would argue that a combination fo taxes and social transfers erodes incentives to work, the Kofoed school begs to differ: economic growth and social welfare aren't always contradictory.

The Kofoed schools are a collection of independent, non-profit humanitarian organizations throughout the E.U. that promote self-reliance through social welfare. The schools operate with a pedagogic model of helping in order to self-help, showign that this approach is often more effective in addressing problems associated with long-term unemployment, social isolation and loneliness.

It was personally moving to learn about the Kofoed method because I came into the tour with my own assumptions of how ineffective welfare shelters in the U.S. can be in promoting self-reliance over time. I was particularly impressed with how Kofoed's approach normalized the stigmatized identity of a welfare dependent by referring to all of its members as students and framing their entire experience at the school as one of learning and not rehabilitation (because rehabilitation implies that something was endemically wrong with Kofoed's students before, an assumption that silences the complexity of how states and other factors outside of the control of individuals can also be responsible for individuals' dependence on the welfare state.

The kind of social welfare provided by the Kofoed schools as institutions partially funded by the government struck me as the most effective kind of social welfare I've seen to date because it not only supports its students temporarily (such as through finances) but through permanent investments (such as skill sets) as well.
-Reny

WWII and it's legacy, June 11

The day started in the Danish Institute for Human Rights, with a gentlemen, who fought in the resistance in WWII. Mr. Jorgen Kieler, was a fantastic storyteller, who told personal experiences, of how he first got involved in the illegal press as a paper boy. Personally, he wanted to do more than an observer. it was fascinating how the student organisation, as a press, evolved to be a network of rescuers, and later on active saboteurs. Unfortyunately, the price he and his group paid was high, and he related to us his experiences in a hidden concentration camp near the German Harz. Shortly before he felt his end nearing, he found unbelievable rescue from the Swedish Red Cross. As one of the many lessons, Mr. Kieler passed on to us was his personal emphasis on the distinction between sabotage and terror- the former being to obstruct the productive means of the enemy and the latter being a form to infuse the public with fear.

Mr. Kieler's wonderful talk that reminded us to be inspired by the courage of people in history, was followed up by a fascinating presentation by Torben Jørgensen. Mr. Jørgensen talked to us about his study of the mentality of perpetrators as well as rescuers. He used personal examples in order to show a pattern: his portrait of a perpetrator was surprising because it didn't fit the stereotypes that we usually associate with a SS concentration guard. Willi Mentz, who worked in one of the worst death camps, Treblinka, was a simple man, who did not go out of his way to be brutal in any way. Stories like that should show us that what we consider as unimaginable evil, is actual a human act, and that we should be aware of the danger of ideology and societal pressure. One interesting pattern that Mr Jørgensen found was that there was a strong belief in authority among the perpetrators.

The rescuer on the other hand was just as thoughtinspiring: even though Karl Laabs went to great length and risks to save 300 Jews in close proximity to SS quarters, he on the same time left his family to pursue his affairs. He gave no monetary support to his first wife and children after a lover gave him another family: they were left in utter poverty in hard times of war and reconstruction. To the end of his life he refused any contacts with his first children. It was interesting to see the complexity of a person being so good and yet so cruel. Again Mr. Jørgensen mentioned that a lot of the rescuers had a strong dislike against any authority ruling their life.

Third in this busy day of thoughtful discussion was an excellent presentation of the current plight in Darfur and about what can be done to raise awareness as well as ameliorate the situation.

The day was finished with a lovely introduction by our very own beautiful and humorous Bosnian fellows to the proud country of Bosnia, and its long history --thank you Enes and Dijana ;)

-Natalie and Lea

The Free Community of Christiania June 9

The sign on the other side of the entrance to “Christiania” read, “You are now entering the EU.” Since, as far as I could tell, we had been in Copenhagen just ten paces ago, I was perplexed, and wondered if we had crossed into some independent political territory. Mette explained that it was “a joke.” Having spent both day and night in what its residents proudly call the “free community of Christiania,” I can state with confidence that it is no joke.

Christiania was truly unlike any place I had ever seen or heard of before. I was fascinated by the idea of a self-governed commune surviving for over thirty years on land that they illegally seized and appropriated as their own in the early 1970s, and I listened with rapt attention to documentary filmmaker and longtime resident Nils Vest’s descriptions of the Christianian way of life.
An unorthodox collection of artists, musicians, craftsmen, anarchists, utopian idealists, and drug addicts (with of course considerable overlap among these categories), the people of Christiania celebrate the notion that they are “the black sheep of all classes” and champion the idea that “when all minorities band together, they become the majority.”

The author of this post with two local "christianians". Can you tell who is the HIA-fellow?

Within the realm of political science, I study political theory – so I couldn’t help seeing Christiania as a radically divergent political and social experiment, and I was intrigued by the philosophical questions that it raised. Is a place like Christiania a possible model for all human political communities, or is it ultimately dependent on the existence of Copenhagen in order to function at all? For instance, Christiania has no criminal justice system of its own; they call the Copenhagen police if crime gets out of control. Christiania also has no military defense system; if for some reason it came under attack, it would most likely call upon Copenhagen to defend it. Could it develop its own legal and defense institutions, or are such institutions contrary to the ideology of a community that is inherently suspicious of raising any decision-making process above the individual level? Yet what does it mean that it chooses to depend on institutions beyond its borders to operate? Is Christiania an idyllic oasis of political idealism – or is it simply a parasite community, claiming to be free while being anything but independent when it comes to the most difficult matters with which political communities must grapple?

More than anything, our visit to Christiania challenged me to reevaluate my assumptions about the possible forms that human political communities can take. I found myself wondering what the democratic world might learn from Christiania, but also what Christiania might learn from the democratic world – and whether some synthesis of rule by majority and rule by consensus was even possible, or whether the two were entirely mutually exclusive. Is there a “best” kind of human political system? If so, just how “on the right track” is Christiania?

-Bronwyn

Refugees and asylum policies in Denmark, June 8

We visited the Sandholm refugee camp situated in the countryside where citizens do not have to be directly confronted with its existence. Ann-Sofie Beck from the Danish Red Cross Asylum Department gave an introduction to the asylum policies and procedures in Denmark, and her colleague, a social worker, gave us a guided tour inside the camp. Comparing the concentration camp Sachsenhausen which we visited in Germany and the Sandholm refugee camp, our
primary impression was that there were some similarities. Confinement is an essential element in both institutions; even at Sandholm, you have to enter through a gate, and the camp is fenced. We think that another similarity between the two types of confinement is that in both cases human beings were forced to be there, in Sachsenhausen directly forced as a result of inhuman practises, in Sandholm indirectly forced as a result of human reasons. What also struck us were the effects of the psychology of detention; the feeling that you cannot do anything or live a normal life, and yet you are not imprisoned.


The parents in Sandholm are not even in control of the education of their children as most of the activities are done by the Red Cross.A similarity between Sandholm and refugee camps in e.g. Sierra Leone is that you become helpless, loose your dignity and feel like a second grade citizen. In this way you take away their personal responsibility. Living in a no mans land they are made into bare life. The camp seemed to have many of the characteristics that define a total institution. However, Ann-Sofie Beck pointed at the dilemma that if you open up your borders, many people will attempt to enter the country.Another thing, it made us reflect on was the fact that Denmark is in need of man power or working force. So does humanity as a consequence come from bare interest or true humanity? A consequence of the strict asylum policy in Denmark in order to limit the number of asylum seekers, the Danish state is now through law making refugees into criminals.

The journalist Olav Hergel offered a speech on the Danish asylum policy in a media perspective. He won a prestigious price as he wrote stories about the life of children in Danish refugee camps. However, we were wondering why the Danish newspapers to a large degree write negative stories instead of positive stories. Hergel did not seem to acknowledge the responsibility of the media in general in its contribution to the construction of reality. In his opinion, it was only the tabloid press that brought stories that fed into a predominantly negative discourse about Muslims which categorizes and stigmatizes a group in the society and make it into a minority, which the majority have a hostile perception of. He did not seem to admit that he himself by defining people by their religion confirmed a dichotomous discourse in the Danish media. His speech made some of us find that when you look at societies naturally human being do not hate each other. The explanation of hate and exclusion derives not primarily from nationalism but from the fear of loosing your welfare and when you find that someone is a threat to your being, that is, what you consider your identity.

Finally, the director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIM) Morten Kjærum gave a speech on the work of the institute. A clear indication and symptom in itself of the status quo in Denmark is that DIM was temporarily closed down because they fight against discrimination and xenophobia. He made the interesting point that regarding the current lack of women in leader positions in Denmark despite 40 years of fight for equality of the sexes there is still a long way to go concerning the rights of minorities. Kjærum found that the two main challenges today is the fight against terrorism and discrimination. Interestingly, he stressed that it is possible to fight against terrorism and insist on the maintenance of human rights simultaneously. Another important view of Kjærum to be memorized is that extremism/fundamentalism and humanism are two contrary attitudes that can be found in all environments or groups. Keeping this in mind, we find it important to notice how e.g. some political formations in Denmark, left wing as well as right wing, are currently developing ideas and suggesting solutions that include violent measures. In this sense, we find that another challenge is how to enter into a dialogue with such political formations.

Inge, Enes and Joseph

The political climate in Denmark, June 7

The first day in Copenhagen was sunny and beautiful yet it was contrasted by Clement Kjersgaard’s presentation on the controversial political climate in Denmark. Although it was difficult to summarize national politics in an hour, he was able to convey the tension of national agenda especially concerning minority rights. The nation has changed from having an international perspective to focusing on national interests which have apparently grown from international problems. Denmark has surprisingly closed the door to global issues in order to remove any responsibility from addressing these concerns. After a relaxing lunch break by the beautiful canals we had a presentation by Jonas Christoffersen concerning the link between the European Court of Human Rights and the Danish National Court. He described that international conventions have been used to implement similar human rights laws within Denmark however different national law traditions affect how these laws are being implemented domestically. Christoffersen also stressed how the ECHR has been a victim of its own success in the sense that they are not able to effectively address every case due to growing numbers of lawsuits. Overall, it was an interesting start to the Danish program and we ended the day off at Kongens Have enjoying the last hours of sunshine.

By – Mette Buskjær Christensen and Moabi Garebamonob

Opening program in Berlin June 1-6

FRIDAY: SIGHTSEEING IN BERLIN
We met very, very early in Copenhagen airport Friday morning, and arrived only a little delayed in Berlin. We walked around in the neighbourhood of Prenzlauerberg, East Berlin, including Mauer-Park (park where there's a remaining part of the berlin wall). Afterwards we had lunch, and then we went to the studio of the two Danish artists: Sixten and Martin, the founders of Wooloo-productions and famous for their project: Defending Denmark. After having a coffee, we arrived rather late at the Wansee-Forum (got on the wrong buss...), where we were welcomed by the sad leftovers from a probably nice dinner? Later there was a welcome speech - by Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen, the German chair of HIA, and then the trip to the "gazolinastation", and social networking in the garden.

SATURDAY: we went to Sachsenhausen, to get a guided tour in the concentration camp. We were divided into two groups - the guides were "good" and they left us in a very emotional and thoughtful state of mind. In the afternoon we had the honour of meeting Mr. Arno Lustiger, who is the survivor of 6 concentration camps, and he told us his life-story, ending up with a discussion. When we arrived at Wannsee-Forum, the Americans had arrived and the rest of the night was spend in the garden - talking and enjoying the goods from another excursion to the dear "gasolinastation".

MONDAY: SIMULATION GAME
What better way to understand people who oppose human and minority rights than to actually become them - at least for a day? That's what some fellows did when they took part in a number of simulation games about terrorism and the making of a constitution in a fictitious country. Some played roles close to their usual ones as human and minority rights activists - others played political extremists, even terrorists - and all learned from it.

TUESDAY: IMMIGRATION/INTEGRATION IN EUROPE

One of Europe's biggest paradoxes was on the agenda: Why are Western European countries so reluctant towards immigration, when a bigger work force is exactly what these countries will need in the coming years? The discussion offered various suggestions - most of them related to integration - along with a reminder that integration means putting pieces together as a whole, not making them all the same.

TUESDAY: PUNDIK ON THE MIDDLE EAST
Being an optimist isn't easy when you live in the Middle East. Allthough co-founder of Humanity in Action Herbert Pundik describes himself as an optimist, he doesn't have much hope for his region. On the contrary, Pundik said, after invasion of Iraq, the ballwork between Iran and the Arab world has been removed - fuelling Iran's ambitions to become a regional superpower and creating an anti-Western alliance between Iran and Palestine.

Mads and Marie

The Holocaust Museum

The images that form the core of the narrative of the Holocaust were familiar to me, as a small, but very memorable, part of my elementary school education focused on them. Viewing the images at times was no more shocking than viewing the routine violence displayed on the nightly news in America; yet, the graphic details of a few images was horrifying--in them, I discovered my emotional connection to the dehumanization. For me, the themes and humans that constitute the narrative of the Holocaust are deeply personal: my grandfather is a survivor and, a significant part of my identity as a Jew and as a member of my family is influenced by the tragedy. Confronting the images uncovers a part of myself that is usually latent. I rarely discuss its significance for me personally. The dislocation of my family to the United States, the vignettes my grandfather has told me from his childhood under the Nazi regime, the enormity of the tragedy for the world engender a feeling that the Holocaust is sacred--to analyze is to profane what is sacred and to comprehend is to imagine yourself as a perpetrator or as a collaborator. If I wonder "would I be a violator of human rights like them," I am humanizing criminals, decreasing the emotional poignancy of my position and, perhaps, closing the moral gap between me and them.

Despite my reservation that discussing the tragedy would diminish its emotional salience, I found the conversations among the fellows engaging and illuminating. The trip to the Washington Holocaust Memorial Museum inspired a vigorous discussion of some of the basic concepts in human rights. One needs reasons to compliment sentiments in order to sustain one's commitment to protecting human rights. Still, I wade into these solemn waters
delicately albeit decisively.

-Eric

Greetings. The HIA program has been in DC for a few days, and everyone is thoroughly exhausted but still having a good time. We’ve spent the last two days visiting the Holocaust Museum (a comprehensive floor by floor tour), and then meeting with the museum directors to discuss our impressions. The subject matter is utterly brutal, and it is emotionally draining to spend nine hours each day viewing and discussing the massive violence done to Jews during the Holocaust. Although the museum exhibits were purposefully made palatable to people of all ages, poignant photographs and videos of death camps and ghettoes grind against any visitor’s conscience. Even the atmosphere is eerie, and the exhibits exude the atmosphere of a dead-somber haunted house. The directors mentioned that the entire museum is, in fact, strategically lit, as they wanted to recreate the dim lighting found within the barracks of concentration camps.

After three floors of dim-lighting, reality-sized cattle cars, sacks full of Zyklon B, and other grisly reminders of concentration camps, one emerges into the sanctuary. The sanctuary is a beautifully lit, circular room made of marble, with yahrtzeit candles ringing the room’s outer walls. As soon as I stepped into the room, a poem written by German playwright Bertolt Brecht raced through my mind. It had been stamped large on one of the exhibit’s walls, and was on the subject of receiving an American visa during the Holocaust. At the time, the United States had strategically offered asylum to famous European intellectuals, believing that they could contribute positively to the American Academy. The poem went as follows:

I know of course; its simply luck
That I’ve survived so many friends
But last night in a dream
I heard those friends say of me:
“Survival of the fittest”
And I hated myself.

Although neither I nor my grandparents received a visa to come to the United States during the Holocaust, I did reflect on my privilege as an American of the upper middle class. We do nothing to land our space in society, it is simply a role of the genetic dice, and I could not help but hate myself for the privileges with which I had been born. I just as easily could have been raised in Darfur, Kosovo, or Kigali, but I was raised in Pittsburgh, and have endured no great tragedy in my life. For this I am thankful, yet I still feel compelled to stay in touch with the greatest sources of rage and misery in our society. They challenge us constantly to take action on behalf of others, and without them, we have lost touch with the lives of many across the world.

-ZR