Westerbork -- reflection9

well... what can i say? this was nothing like what i expected to see. nothing seemed to be preserved. it was not at all tourist-like in the sense that we would be able to see the camp as it were. i felt like i was taking a stroll through a local park. the place was gezellig! trees, birds, wide-open spaces... it was a very peaceful area. sure there were the man-made stones that signified specific regions of the site where camp buildings and railroads once existed, but everything was gutted out and the place was renovated to look like man had not touched the land before. the nature was healthy and long-lived-looking. what a surprise, i must say.

before the german rule, this camp was a refugee camp. i find it pretty twisted, though, that they made this camp so much more of a paradise compared to the other camps that it was hardly believable that places such as auschwitz could contain gas chambers and mass-burials. the hospitality here would confuse anybody of the reality of camps beyond these walls. who could have guessed? with a hospital that cared sooo deliberately for its patients that it would not allow a pre-maturely born child to die, rather to live and be strong just to die un-naturally...i find this rather disturbing.

"we'll make you strong, and when you're good and ready, we'll work you to your death" appears to be the method behind this awful reality.

then again, if you shed light on the idea behind the camp, as it were, a refugee camp, there are reasons behind their care and attention for the prisoners.

the influence of the WWII in dutch society today...