Please note, there may be some graphic imagery described in this week's post:
We got assigned a walking tour assignment in our Digital History class. The purpose is to understand various parts of the city we live in. It also is a great way to learn about the tools that a Public Historian has at their disposal.
I love walking around cities and discovering what gems and tidbits of information that are hidden within the corridors and streets of them. Also understanding the way cities are constructed, why names and neighborhoods are what and where they are. One of the papers I have presented on (it's on this blog-Eruv) states that "walking breeds familiarity". Intimacy is created through surrounding. A great book that explores spatiality is The Practice of Everyday Life by Miguel de Certeau. It is a descriptive psychological and social study learning and teaching of the ways one can become familiar with the world around them.
In any case, I believe that walking around places of great significance helps develop a much deeper sense of connection. I emphasize walking because with driving there is a removal, not just through speed but also the lens/pane of the car glass acts as a barrier between a person and the site.
The picture of the week, if it was not obvious, is Auschwitz. A place where 1 million people were murdered by Nazi Germany and their collaborators.
Why is this week's assignment associated with Auschwitz? When one walks through the space where one's relatives were murdered, one can feel the connection. The ties are bound to you through a feeling like a tight rope around your heart. The nail scratches on the walls of the gas chambers are seen, the silence from the screams is audible. What words cannot say, the soul will. Learn from me, remember me. Feel the earth tremble as you tread upon it. Fear lived here and Death was its landlord.
The quote for this week's title comes from a verse in Isaiah, 56:4. The verse actually is the inspiration for the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, Israel. But it is befitting even here. The walls of the world, whether they be barbed wire fences, buildings, or stalks of grain beckon to the walker, remember what you see here and do not neglect what you hear.
The world is filled with places, sights, sounds and feelings. You are only passing through it.
Do not forget.
(In memory of Tuvia, Miriam, Yisrael, Sarah, Tzvi, Yehudit, and Rosa Liblich)
(In memory of Yosef and Tzilia Wigh)