Thoughts on Evil People

It has been a while, but that was on purpose(slightly). I was waiting to post about our WWII experiences and learning to complete on this trip, and while they relate to our larger topic of music, they also had larger impacts on how I think about people and our history.

Our first stop was Terezin, a concentration camp, mainly for artists and the elderly. Terezin is a castle town - a city within the walls of a castle. Many artistic Jewish Europeans, from comic artists to actors to composers were held there during WWII, and forced to work for the Nazis as well as create propaganda against their own people for them. Of note, a group at Terezin performed Verdi’s Requiem, using the performance to judge the Nazis and ask God to judge them. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, and knew things that nobody else knew, as he owns several memoirs that nobody else has access to or translations of.

My second was the museum Topography of Terror in Berlin. This museum heavily documented every step the Nazis took in order to come to power, maintain power and influence, and commit every atrocity. It contained pictures and papers and even pictures and video of citizens boarding trains to concentration camps filmed by fellow citizens.

Finally, just a few days ago, we as a class visited the Wannsee Museum - an exhibit in the building where high-up Nazi officials documented their plan for the final solution. This is a brand new exhibit(we were the first English tour in the new exhibit) that focuses on the Wannsee meeting. Our tour guide was very specific with wording, especially with how carefully he described the event. He made sure we knew how short it was - probably an hour and a half, followed by brunch. He made sure we knew what these people(yes they were people) were doing and how horrifying that made them.

I have found it hard this month to write down my thoughts on these visits, perhaps for obvious reasons. Many of these things are hard hard to even look at. I found myself doubling back between scared to look and observe around me to reminding myself that I should be learning. Every location honestly filled me with dread. These were genuinely evil people. But I am thankful for these experiences.