Some of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps, now run as museums, could soon demand an entrance fee from visitors to help to finance educational facilities. The prospect of paying to enter Dachau, where SS guards used to issue threats to inmates that they would leave only through the chimneys of the crematorium, has created controversy in Germany as the country considers how best to acknowledge its past.
Pieter Dietz de Loos, president of the International Dachau Committee, believes that there is no choice but to charge visitors. He says that the museum cannot meet its obligation to educate the young about the horrors of the Holocaust. Dachau, in a northern suburb of Munich, is visited by 800,000 people each year but the camp museum can only afford to pay one full-time educational assistant. Money is also running out to support Dachau survivors. “In five years we will be completely broke,” Mr Dietz de Loos said.
The idea of an entry ticket to the camps – museum officials at Buchenwald and Ravens-brück have also given warning of cash shortages – has outraged the Central Board of Jews in Germany. “These are graveyards,” a spokesman said. “You do not pay to mourn the dead.”
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19 Responses
This reminds me of a story that the Yidden used to tell each other after the outbreak of WWII.
One day a Gestapo officer visited a school in Germany. He walked into one classroom and asked the class,” If Hitler, YM”SH, was your father what would you like to be when you grow up?”
So, one little boy said,” I would like to be a pilot in the Luftwaffe!” Another little boy said,” I would like to be an officer in the Wehrmacht!” A third little boy announced,” I would like to be a member of the SS!”
Finally, Gestapo officer walked to a fourth child who was Jewish. The Gestapo officer asked the fourth little boy,” And sonny, if Hitler, YM”SH, was your father, what would you like to be when you grow up?” So, the little Jewish boy answered quietly,” I would like to be an orphan.”
V’HAMAIVEN, YAVIN!!!!
I agree with Feif Un. And the article said that the money also goes to educate the young in Germany about the Holocaust. Now, I don’t know if that really helps prevent a new holocaust (in fact, I’m doubtful), but I think the Gedolim agree the world should not be allowed to forget.
Flatbush Bubby: No offense, but I don’t understand what connection the story you told has with this article. Please explain. (Apparently, I am not a maiven.)
REB MOTCHA: this is my second encounter with flatbush bubby and, once again, she writes without thinking….nebech…I wonder why the YW editors allow such inane comments in this choshuve site?? Bubby…stick to making a good cholent and start thinking BEFORE typing your comments!!!
FEIF UN and REB MOTCHA what are you both thinking????????????
Sure the germans nazis should take care of the camps ……but don’t you think it should be done with tax money or have you tought taht maybe they could support it with all the monies they stole from our ancestors
i will agree with gezunt here that some readers just write and the editors go ahead and publish it
please readers think before writing
Entrance should be free to all.
Let the government fund the upkeep and to keep the facilities functioning, they found the $$$$ during wartime for its upkeep, find it now.
To all of you who are critical of FB’s post;
Did it ever occur to you that she might have gone through the horror and just wants to share a story EVEN if its not directly linked to the subject?. Goodness me, how insenstive can you all be??? Maybe its you people who should THINK before submitting your comments! Sheesh!
Okay, I see your points. Yes, it should be free so people can learn more about it, and it probably should be paid by the Germans through taxes.
gezintumenucho, please speak with more sensitivity. You never know what someone’s background is.
While they may need funds for maintenance, visitors shouldn’t be paying for it. Let them fund it with our stolen goods. Yemach Shemam!
I think that it should be free to all let the German’s/Poles pay for the upkeep they already have enough Jewish blood money
Flatbusher;
Read the first line of her post. That was enough of an indication for me to keep my opinion to myself even if I, like the rest of you dont see the connection.
Have not the Jews paid enough at Dachau
Let the money go to pay for coffins for jews killed by terror attacks….
If they need money, take it out of what they stole from the jews….
This is classic Ratsachta vegam yarashta. Imagine the Jews being asked to pay a toll to cross the Yam Suf, to help pay for upkeep for the pyramids!!
Yemach shemam shel kol hagermanim
to feif un how in the world can you say that they should charge did you have a parent grandparents yhere
arguing about nothing for no reason
Are some people so bored that they can’t resist an opportunity to make someone else feel bad?
Are you all so smart that you feel it’s your job to denigrate someone’s post, not because it is against Torah Hashkafah, not because it could potentially harm someone, but because choshuvah and intelligent YOU didn’t like that you couldn’t see a connection?
Where are your Middos? Do you behave like this to your family/coworkers/acqaintances as well?
I am repulsed at the derision. Yes, please, please, THINK BEFORE POSTING.
Flatbusher, do me a favor!! read Sarah’s post and use some common sense even if you dont get my point with regard to the first line of her comment….
But for the record, it would indicate that she perhaps is old enough to remember when that particular story was told whic is fresh after the war….Even if thats not he case she didnt write anything which was offensive in any way to provoke insensitive remarks…
lets solve world hunger
‘Could you just explain the relevance of her story to the post about charging for concentration camps and MAIVIN YAVIN comment?,,,,,,,,’
Gosh, there are some people who just NEVER quit,lol!
My point was that I , like the rest of you dont think there IS a connection.But she read the post which obviously has SOMETHING to do with the Holocaust so I guesse she just had an urge to relate an anecdote about a story that went around after the war,
‘MAIVIN YOVIN’ didnt mean there was a connection to whether or not there should be entrance fees to Dachau. It was related to the story itself(which obviously meant that the Jewish boy preferd to be orphaned , that way there would be no Hitler,,,)
Sarah,
I agree with your sentiments.
Ever since I’ve been on the internet, as far back as ’90 or thereabouts, I’ve witnessed a phenomenon my friend used to call “Modem-Induced Personality Disorder.”
I don’t know what causes it. For some reason, some people (I have not read the offending post, so I don’t know who Sarah is talking about here — I’m just talking generally about the online world at large) seem to feel that online behavior does not need the restrictions that Mussar puts on interpersonal behavior.