The Unspeakable of Flossenburg Concentration Camp

I want to write for their memory. The honor of those who lived such terror. Victims of Hitler’s rage and insanity.

Sixty million people lost their lives because of him.

That’s New York City more than eight times.

But to try with my words feels trite. Not enough. Because it’s all so unspeakable.

Truly UNspeakable.

What were their thoughts when they looked out the windows? What did they see? Could they dream of the freedom I feel when I look out a window on a sunshiney day? I cannot imagine…The SS forced the prisoners to stand in the courtyard for roll call, many times for hours on end. Often they made them watch as they executed someone in the gallows there. Then they had to walk by as they were dismissed.

A bowl, cup and utensil of one of the prisoners. Most of them tied these around their necks so nobody would steal them. For, they did not get any food if they had nothing to put it in.Boots worn in the Death Marches at the end of the war. The Nazis marched the prisoners who could walk deeper into the country to try to kill them off before they could be liberated.This is where the Nazi administration stayed. Max Koegel was the last one in charge there. He killed himself the day after he was captured. All I could think as I looked up at those windows was “What the heck were you thinking?” Truly unthinkable.

If these walls could talk, I am honestly not sure I could handle what they would say.  “The men and women who gave their lives for people’s freedom and justice.” (My very broken German translation.)

The building in the background is where Dietrich Bonhoeffer and five other men who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944 were martyred on April 9, 1945. It was eleven days before the camp was liberated by the Allies.

You can read more about Flossenburg Concentration Camp here.

*I imagine I will write more someday, but for now, I will only remember. And I will hope that as I do I will honor those who died. And live differently for their memory.