Sign Of The Times?
Someone stole the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign off the gate at Auschwitz. Guardian. A weird and disturbing crime, as the defacement of a historical site that also serves as a memorial to the murder of millions of people.
Norm Geras discusses the view that this is an act of Holocaust deniers seeking to remove the evidence. If that’s the case, it makes it a fascinating historical event in its own right. But if so, as Geras notes, it is a pathetic act, as the sign, or even Auschwitz itself or the ongoing living testimony of survivors are no more necessary to prove the Holocaust happened than history requires artifacts and survivors to document the Black Plague. What is more disturbing than the actual act of defacement if that’s the case is the existence of people who not only deny history but think they can rewrite it through acts of vandalism. Geras also notes the danger of buying into the view that destruction of artifacts equals destruction of history.
But I’m not convinced that is necessarily what happened here. Could be deniers. Conversely, it could be neo-nazi enthusiasts who want it for their clubhouse. Could be someone who wants to sell it to a World War II memorabilia collector. Or, it could be scrap metal mongers. Turns out the thing is made of bronze. In the past couple of weeks, someone pried off a 100-year-old commemorative plaque at Lexington’s Battle Green, as well as a couple of plaques with the names of World War II and Vietnam war dead in Attleboro, Mass. Scrap metal thieves suspected. If it can be melted down, they don’t really care what it is.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I have some familiarity with the alleged misappropriation of artifacts associated with murderous regimes, having made headlines and having been widely denounced as a looter and international art thief in 2003 after I was stopped by U.S. Customs in possession of a painting of Saddam Hussein, liberated from what later became the Green Zone in the immediate aftermath of combat operations. U.S. Customs seized it, had it assessed at $800, and determined that it therefore exceeded the $400 value I was legally allowed to steal from Saddam Hussein. Hey, I don’t write these laws. I’m just subject to them. U.S. Customs reportedly intended to return said painting to the grateful Iraqi people. Unclear whether that ever happened, but I’d love to hear about it if anyone witnessed that profound and deeply meaningful event, as all this occured at a time when the Iraqi people were happily tap dancing on Saddam’s face, American soldiers were routinely pulling down his statue with armored vehicles and peppering his image with high-explosive rounds, and the remaining Saddam fans were actively trying to kill American soldiers. U.S. Customs did allow me to retain a hefty brass profile of Saddam, about the size of the head on a men’s room door, liberated from the wreckage of a palace that had been turned inside out by a cruise missile. Saddam’s head now rests on a shelf in a decorative Arab enamel box full of spent bullets, which could be scooped up by the handful at the intersection of Haifa and Jaffa Streets by the Jumhuriya Bridge after one particularly warm spring morning there.)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:48 am Comments (2) on Saturday, December 19, 2009
2 Responses to “Sign Of The Times?”
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December 20th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Holocaust deniers abound, particularly in Germany.
I lived in a small German (near my Army Kaserne) village years ago when the Holocaust mini series was broadcast for the first time on the Federal Republic’s airwaves. That event was so traumatic that phone banks were set up across the country for folks to deal with distress caused by ancient history dramatized.
My neighbor was a septuagenerian who had been a POW for a time was quite upset. “Why now? This happened so long ago.” etc..
This particular individual lived upstairs from me for about 2 years and was always before nice. His remarks concerning the television program made me feel inclined to put his lights out. It was outrageous, and I think representative of the population at the time.
December 20th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
[...] Who stole the sign at Auschwitz.” Jules Crittenden breaks down the reasons for the theft. [...]