Coburg Chronicles 4

Nuremberg

The word Nuremberg is very familiar to most human rights activists. It marked a new era of international human rights. For those who are not so familiar with this here is the reason. After the second world war ended, the victors, USA, UK, Russia and France set up a tribunal to try those who were accused of cooperating with Hitler for the genocide of the innocent people. This trial was held in Nuremberg. It marked a new beginning in the field of human rights where the guilty would be tried and punished no matter how strong they once were.

Now we were in this historic city. It was destroyed in the both the World wars and was rebuild to its glory. There is much more to the history of Nuremberg than just the wars and destruction. Our place of visit was the documentation centre of the Nazi Germany. It was in a magnificent red building with some spectacular modifications that gave ultra modern features.

The place was a visual narrative of the history of the evolution of Hitler as a force to be reckoned with. It was to represent the chosen trauma of the Germans in a very high tech manner. High definition photos, audio visual presentations with accompanied audio guides that were easy to use were just some features. The narratives created strong impressions of what had transpired in about 30 years from 1925 – 45. It stood as a testimony to the national frenzy that he created to feel proud of a nation that painted a completely new image to the world as the most dominant super power that could not be stopped.

The grandiose plans to build stadia to accommodate over 4,00,000 people, the parade grounds, war game arenas, parliament buildings and so on were all beautifully planned and were in the process of being executed. All this banked on the labour of those in the concentration camps. The quarries of Flossenberg etc that would supply all the building materials. This was called nation building! A process that systematically excluded a minority for the welfare of the majority.

The entire exhibition produced two reactions. Firstly, horror, secondly an inspiration to see the possibility of how a nation can be influenced by some simple emotional prodding. I guess the BJP/RSS combine try it repeatedly in India as it is the case of all the nationalist mobilizations around the world.

The exhibits end with the Nuremberg Trials. This also marked the beginning of a new phase of development of Human Rights.

Our next stop was the Human Rights Road located just opposite the Nuremberg Museum. The story goes that the place was acquired by the Municipal Council of Nuremberg, proposals were invited to decide to utilize the space. A novel idea of a human rights way was assigned to famous Israeli artist. He put up thirty pillars with 30 Article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The articles were written in german accompanied by another language. Many languages found their place in on the pillar and obviously many did not. So after the 20^th pillar he planted an oak tree to represent all the other languages of the world. It was surprising to find Tibetan and Singalese among the thirty but Hindi and Telugu or Tamil were obviously missing. I guess that is was part of the tree.

In the free time that followed, a visit to the Church of St Lawrence, a magnificent piece of work that took 200 years to complete stood right in the heart of the Market place. Located closely was another church of Our Lady, that was built during the reformation and then was given to the catholics two hundred years ago. It was interesting to find that the images on both the churches were so similar in form but only different in size.

Nuremberg thus left a lasting impression to learn about what had happened in the history of Human Rights not so long ago.  

Coburg Chronicles 3

Day 3

Flossenburg

It was an early start. I was back in Gaby's house for breakfast. It was 7:00 am, She had alerady left for work. We had to cut into the really hard bread. Solidad was my only company for breakfast when we started. Soon Lucy joined us. Our conversations were around education in Chile and India. We soon left the house packing some sandwiches for John and Cecilia. The bus awaited us at the Mensa. It was fully loaded and off to Flossenburg.

Flossenburg was the location of a former concentration camp. It was a work camp and not an extermination camp. Work camps were places where people were brought in for hard labour. They were given colour codes to be differentiated. A green triangle signified a career criminal, a black triangle signified an anti social, a red triangle was political objector, blue was an immigrant, and pink was for the homosexual and purple was for the Jehova's witness. If the person was a jew an inverted yellow triangle was added to the existing triangle. So by seeing them one could be identified.

The camp existed from 1942 to 1945 till the americans liberated them. In 1945 there were about 100,000 prisoners in the camp and were liberated of which it is said that 30000 were killed.

The camp hosted citizens from 22 countries which included almost all of europe. To our surprise there seemed to be one chinese and seven from the USA.

The camp site was not eerie to see at first. The stories they said were not compelling in the beginning. But as we progressed, it became harder to hear. There is a place where it reads, “Work will set you Free”. It is really nice to hear this but it actually meant that, if you work very hard every day you will die fast and then you will be burnt in that oven and your smoke will be free. What an interpretation!

This was the place where bodies people were burnt in threes and fours as there were about 80-90 people dying every day and all of them had to be disposed. So the bodies would be kept on a table and their jugular vein cut off so that they bleed out all their blood. The golden teeth/filling was pulled out, their hair was shaved and then they were filled in the oven. The gold was melted to make jewelry and the hair was sent to make beds. The clothes were probably recycled.

The valley of death was a place where people were lined up and shot. Now there is a memorial of nations that underlines the suffering. Close to it is a church that has beautiful glass work with significant allegorical reference to the suffering. This church was built by the survivors.

A compelling fact about this camp was that Dietrich Bonhoffer a protestant theologian was killed here. I have read a lot about him and used his works extensively in retreats. In a book called Contact with god, Tony De Mello Quotes, Bonhoffer, “When Jesus says follow me, he is asking you if you are willing to die for me”. He joined the resistance against hitler and also planned to assassinate him. But in the process was imprisoned and hanged in Flossenburg along with eight of his companions. It was quite a place to be in.

A video of the survivors was very informative. It gave more intricate details of life in the camps. The survivors were filmed on the spot when they had gathered for a reunion.

The experience was very different from the Holocaust museum in Washington DC and the New York. Those museums gave an eerie feeling about the whole thing but this was less traumatic but had a whole lot of information that made you go through life as it was in real time. Associating it with what happened in Sri Lanka or Cambodia was easier.

The ride back was very relaxing as all of us slept in the bus except the Driver of course!  

Coburg Chronicles 2

Day two.

As usual I woke up at 5:00 am the only difference was that it was 5:00 am in India and only 1:00 am here. Rolling and wriggling in the bed went back to sleep, but was visibly tired for the day. Was ready on time for the walk to breakfast to Gaby's place. Bread, cheese, meat, milk, musli, yoghurt, jelly, honey, tea, grape fruit and apple juice greeted us on the table.

Had a quick bite and was ready to head for the sessions. The first half of the day had four presentations from Chile, Namibia, India and Germany. They presented by the students who had worked on the issues. It was really interesting to see their level of involvement in the issue. The real learning was from the presentation from Namibia. Where the apartheid was at its peak. Was similar to the South African case study but was very different in terms of the way in which it was dealt with. The Indians presented on on the situation of the Irulas in Guduvancherry. It was a typical class room presentation. All this while I was thinking of our students who could have been presenting here. Wondered how well Arulmani and Jerry would have pulled it off the whole perspective would have been different for the international community.

In the afternoon there was an interesting lecture by Dr Louis De Campo an expert on child rights working in Columbia. His case study was the rehabilitation of child soldiers. Bencosta was the name of is project. He gave several insights, on how things operated in that part of the world. A video demonstrated his work and the difference they had made in the lives of thousands of children amidst the ongoing conflict.

It was now about 5:00 pm and we were free till 7:00 pm for dinner which was at the Highlander Restaurant. I was totaled out, I just came to my room and hit my bed for nap. I had slept for about 40 minutes to renew my energy for the rainy day. Then walked down the mountain to the city centre for the dinner. It was an old restaurant, with a lot of character. On the way I picked up the russians and the chileans who were shopping. Though I was not the last to reach there. I was served food at the very end. Just like what happened yesterday. But I was in no hurry but very tired. The place was supposed to be the best for Burgers in this part of germany. Hence Burger it was for dinner. The burger lived up to the wait. The fries was really good.

After chattering, I was ready for my uphill walk.  

Coburg Chronicles 1

Day 1

21^st May 2013

Introduction and tour of the city

the participants of the summer school met at about 9:30 at the hall and started the interactions. There were people from Namibia, Chile, India, Russia and Ethiopia. In all there were about 60 people including the Students of Coburg University.

As we entered the hall, Lisa, a student who was with us in Chennai greeted me with a Vanakkam without even seeing me. She was once considered as a trouble maker by the CIP, though I do not subscribe to that opinion. Then I looked at her and said, “I know you!”. She was a bit startled and got up and said, Yes Yes Yes of course! She gave me a name tag and we were ready to get started. In the mean time I was curious to see the Indians from MSSW. As we waited they walked in. Was happy to greet them. All the while I was thinking of Jerry, Christin, Saswathan, Karunya and Arulmani who could not make it. What a missed opportunity.

The introduction got underway with a lot of games, Claudia was in-charge and make it look so simple. She used some of the theatrical warm ups to lighten the mood. It was funny and useful. Now it was time to sit and listen to the inaugural address. Susanne the dean of the School was there to welcome. There was simultaneous translation in Spanish for the Chileans. So it went on back and forth.

Gaby rolled out the entire program and it sounded pretty tight packed for two weeks. It has been a while since I stayed in a place for almost two weeks. The last time I remember doing this was in Oxford for three weeks. I hope to take back a lot from this program as the contacts were good and the topics were also interesting. It all goes well at the end I will have a lot to share with my students and friends.

Lunch was organized at the mezzanine level, it was bread, cream of broccoli soup, chicken wings, and some fruit with cheese. I had to motivate the students from MSSW to eat as they really found it weird to eat bread and soup. One of them was already ill from the journey but was coping well with the pressure of being in a foreign land. They showed good initiative in their participation. Their faculty was also a good sport.

Post lunch was the walking tour of the city. We had to climb down the hillock, under the railwaystation, to the market, through the old streets and heritage buildings that were well preserved over 600 years. Student guides were well prepared to give us an orientation to the history of coburg along with its monumental structures.

An interesting fact was the manhole cover. It had a symbol of a black man's head. It was the head of Moor, a black warrior of the Roman who valiantly protected the city in the 3^rd century AD. The students paused for a moment to reflect on it and asked for impressions on the manhole. The chileans had some interesting ones.

We later strolled through the town hall area were a music festival was on. It was a square where plenty of bavarian beer was served. It was funny to seen the people in traditional attire, some looking like they were from the fraternity and the Nazi outfit proving their identity. The music was great.

A decision was made to go up to the castle, where Martin Luther of the reformation had lived for about six months to protect himself from the tyranny of the church. This compelled me to walk up the hill despite my disabilities.

On our return we were taken to a good restaurant for dinner, and the surprise was in store. Meat, potatoes and so on....

came back and just crashed as I was so tired of the walk and jet lag.