Does history reveal the future?
Struthof Concentration Camp
It was a cold autumn when we embarked on a discovery journey of world history. One that is not for the fainthearted. It’s the history of World War 2, and this time exploring where it happened before understanding the why.
Nestled high above a wide valley in the Eastern border of France and Germany is the Struthof concentration camp in a region annexed by the Nazi regime when France fell to the Wehrmacht. The closest I have ever been to this kind of history is in the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Instagrammable moments of getting the Soviet stamp at CheckPoint Charlie.
The Scenes
The Museum
The camp is not for the reserved as every corner reveals troubled departure of human souls. Resembling a dilapidated coffee factory or a cattle dip back home, the master plan featured boilers, labs, drying beds, conveyor belts, strong rooms and ponds among other installations. And the dense forest below with a picturesque collage of autumn colors created an impression of an idyllic mountain retreat but it acoustically controlled the sounds of torture emanating from the camp. Clearly even in war, design also prevails.
Why?
Perpetually curious, many questions were: how could this have happened? Historically the world is still young. Could humans recreate such on a larger scale and this time I am sent to the trenches?
The passing of time has a way of revealing the truth.
