How do you start to answer something, if you don’t believe in your answers? How do you ask something, if you don’t know the questions? How do you write something, if your sentences are missing?
How do I feel, after my visit to Auschwitz? I was asked this question a couple of times, but how should I be able to answer, if I, Mustafa Jakupov, have so many doubts and questions in my head after my visit at this “tourist attraction”… Indeed I choose a word such as attraction, because many people treat it as such “After the terror, tourists came …” I saw so many people, young and old, running around with their cameras; so many pictures have been taken. But have the lessons been learned and also taken with our mental camera for storage and “flattering” in front of our friends? Yet I think it is wrong to generalize and judge people, since everyone has its own motives for visiting Auschwitz.
I was today at Auschwitz as a human being, not as a Macedonian or Roma. I went there to learn why one human was hurting another human being. I went to learn about WHY? Because, that is the only question and answer I got.
I have learned that 23,000 Roma were brought to Auschwitz and 21,000 of them perished. I still hear one sentence that will always remain in my mind:”…consciousness was invented by Jews …” A sentence read by our guide to our group, a sentence written by Adolf Hitler himself. With this sentence a man, a human being tried to justify the murders he ordered for all these helpless people, who were unfortunate to end up in this place. But he also tried to cheer up the humans who conducted this slaughter. Many people before me tried to analyze these words, but there still is not any justification for that what was done. And never will be!
My impression of this visit was that my Humanity has been challenged. Questions as what is a human and what makes us human appeared in my mind, but also questions such as: “do we deserve to call ourselves human, after the terror we cause to another”, “are we human, because we feel emotions, such as love, anger, envy, lust” or “do we become human, if we master our emotions and prevent them of doing harm to others?
I recommend a visit in this important historical place to everyone – to test their humanity by asking themselves these questions. Not only to treat this place as an attraction, but also to learn from it … And if you are able to help the people who work to preserve this important historical site, something that is valuable for our human history, do it!
Mustafa Jakupov
Mustafa Jakupov
Thank you so much, Mustafa, for sharing your emotions and reflections on Auschwitz with us. I agree with your scepticism about Auschwitz as a (tourist) attraction, and I also think that the sites of such "dark heritage" should not be commodified and commercially exploited. But on the other hand, I am asking myself: Is not superficial interest and a bit of "sensation-seeking" better than no interest at all? Certainly the approach that you took, silent and reflecting instead of superficial and greedy, is more appropriate and will have a more profound and long-lasting effect on you (or anybody else). But what about those who do not want to (or cannot) go as deep as you did?
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