{"id":3610,"date":"2008-10-09T18:43:23","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T23:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=3610"},"modified":"2008-10-09T20:09:03","modified_gmt":"2008-10-10T01:09:03","slug":"auschwitz-taking-it-all-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/auschwitz\/auschwitz-taking-it-all-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Auschwitz: Taking it All In"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/home\/homepix\/visitor1_homepix.jpg?resize=600%2C400&#038;ssl=1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Visitors to Auschwitz listen to the words of a tour guide with suitable expressions of disgust. I&#8217;ve tried enlarging the eyes of the guy with with sunglasses, and I can&#8217;t discern whether he is leering at me for taking his photo, or looking straight ahead. Photo by Eric Francis.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[<strong>Editor&#8217;s Note<\/strong>: This article was originally published Oct. 8, 2006. For a more detailed introduction to this series, <a href=\"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/2008\/10\/05\/auschwitz-essays-and-photos-two-years-later\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>please see this link<\/strong><\/a>. The approximately eight articles and 15 photos in this series will be published evenings at about 6 pm Eastern Time.]<\/p>\n<p>AS I LEFT Auschwitz, the original camp, I stopped to study and  photograph the reactions of people gathered near the entrance listening  to tour guides tell the story. This photo, taken from inside the camp  gate looking outward, pretty much sums it up: a combination of disgust  and shock.<\/p>\n<p>These folks look sixtyish, so what they are hearing about happened in  their lifetimes or very close to it. This the thing we need to  remember: the Holocaust happened recently, in a society just like ours,  where a lot of middle class people wanted to enjoy their lives and not  be bothered with the affairs of the government.<\/p>\n<p>This is why we need to keep it in mind, and watch to see if   any patterns are repeating.<\/p>\n<p>One of the framers of the U.S. Constitution once remarked that the time  to start worrying is not when all your rights are gone, but rather when  the first of them is threatened. I have noticed that it&#8217;s finally  becoming less taboo to &#8220;be political,&#8221; as we figure out that  &#8220;political&#8221; is about OUR lives, our futures. We might want to think of  more creative ways to do that, how to raise awareness and how to take  action.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow night we will begin exploring Auschwitz ii &#8211; Birkenau, and see  if the history of this place, the Nazis&#8217; most cherished mass human  extermination complex, holds any clues for us today.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll   catch you tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/home\/homepix\/20061014_1_homepix.jpg?resize=600%2C400&#038;ssl=1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sign before the electric barbed wire fence at the perimeter of Auschwitz, camp 1.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/home\/homepix\/20061013_homepix.jpg?resize=600%2C482&#038;ssl=1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"482\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Auschwitz ii &#8211; Birkenau photo surveillance photo, 1944, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the framers of the U.S. Constitution once remarked that the time to start worrying is not when all your rights are gone, but rather when the first of them is threatened. I have noticed that it&#8217;s finally becoming less taboo to &#8220;be political,&#8221; as we figure out that &#8220;political&#8221; is about OUR lives, our futures. We might want to think of more creative ways to do that, how to raise awareness and how to take action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[357],"tags":[1789,361,373,362,360,117,363],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}