Genozid, Gedenken, Nation

Reflections about genocide, commemoration and the concept of national belonging

When someone talks about the victims of Hitler's regime, he usually refers to their belonging to different nationalities, and there is often a count about people from which country have suffered more or less. Of course, for each state it is important to remember only about its citizens and to care more about preserving the memory of victims from it. But I'm describing my personal impression after a visit to Auschwitz, Birkenau and Buchenwald, therefore I'm going to write not as a representative of my country and my nation, I'm going to talk like a person. Despite the theme is complicated I will try to express my position and be as sincere as it is possible. In my mind I can not separate the victims of Hitler's regime at nationalities, grieving about someone more and someone less. Despite the fact that I'm Russian, I cannot sympathize with Soviet prisoners more deeply than with Jews or Romas. The truth is, for me it does not matter which nationality the deceased person belongs to. I perceive any unnatural death as taken life, unlived years, untested happiness or unshed tears, and only then as a spoil of state or national representatives.

If we talk about what nation or what state suffered more from the cruelty of the regime, it seems to me that during the 20th century there was no country that has been without sacrifice. And when for the Jewish people there was the Holocaust, then for the Chinese at the same time was no less terrible genocide of the Japanese, the Ukrainians went through the famine in 1933, which coupled with the policy of collectivization had led to countless deaths. Each nation has its grief. And counting the number of dead citizens of the concrete State, as well as judging who suffered more, in my opinion is a deal of historians of particular States, as well as residents of those states. Such memorials as Auschwitz and Buchenwald opened its doors for us not for learning about the sufferings of some specific nations, but to be horrified by grief of the whole humanity and for each prisoner in particular, regardless of nationality.

After visiting these memorials I believe that today human life has become the main value in the world. And, despite the fact that the world is still far from ideal and people continue to die in the political games, I already feel a big contrast from the past century, when the state's interests were openly placed above the human life.

Yuliana Ryazantseva