Just a Pile of Shoes?
What is the significance of a pile of shoes? During my sophomore year of college, I noticed a glass case display full of various shoes of all different shapes and sizes for a Resident Assistance Program project. I immediately felt a sick feeling in my stomach and had a flashback to the prior summer.
It was at Majdanek concentration camp when the image of a pile of shoes immediately carried a new meaning. As I and 33 other college students from around the United States were bussed into the small countryside town of Lublin, Poland the reality of the Holocaust was manifest before my eyes. On the outskirts of this quiet town lies the most intact Nazi death camp. Majdanek, the first concentration camp to be visited on our March of Remembrance trip to Poland and Israel, left a lasting footprint on my life. As I walked through the barbed wire gate, a numbness overflowed my system and I glanced up to see watch tower after watch tower, a scene I had viewed in several Holocaust films.
Silently we marched through the “washroom” where men, women, and children were stripped of all possessions, shoes and all and thrown a paper-thin striped uniform as if they were no longer a citizen and a prisoner. We then walked through a passageway into the “showers”. Each human being (now dehumanized and stripped of his/her very identity) was told that he/she would receive a warm shower. However, the so-called shower and disinfectant chambers were lined, not with water pipes but with Zyklon B poison gas that was dispensed as white pellets. Those individuals who did not get gassed immediately upon arrival underwent forced labor, horrific crowded and unsanitary living conditions, separation from family, malnutrition, and most prominently a loss of all dignity.
Holocaust survivor, Irving Roth, explained to us students that only those who had HOPE were able to survive. Piles and piles of shoes not only represent those who lost hope, but those who were robbed of life without even having a chance to defend themselves!
After walking through Majdanek, Plaszow, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Auschwitz II, and Treblinka, I can no longer tolerate Holocaust denial. Not only are there the voices of Holocaust survivors, righteous gentiles, former SS officers, and those who, like I, have walked through the death camps to testify that the Holocaust occurred, but the piles and piles of shoes each representing an innocent life lost speak of the atrocities against people, like you and I, just because they had Jewish blood!
With my first hand experiences in Poland and Israel during that summer, I will SPEAK to make sure that a Holocaust NEVER happens again. I will speak on behalf of survivors and silent pairs of shoes to combat Holocaust denial!
In the words of the Yiddish poet Moses Schulstein:
“We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses.
We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers
From Prague, Paris and Amsterdam,
And because we are only made of fabric and leather
And not of blood and flesh,
Each one of us avoided the hellfire.”
How is this significant to the times of today? We must never forget how the horrors of the Holocaust (and tragically following genocides) were viciously carried out with the consent of average human being. Free speech and open dialogue was restricted. Group shaming and a collective guilt narrative was forced on a specific group of individuals. History from writing to statues to archives were destroyed or confiscated. Guns were confiscated under the guise of “gun control”. Dissenters were at first quietly silenced, but soon public shaming of those who did not “walk the line” became more common. The average citizens became too frightened to speak up so as to not compromise anything from a reputation to family business. Unfortunately, finally when some started to speak up, it was too late and the consequences came to even death.
On a personal note, a few weeks ago, I happened to share a photo (on another network) of a pile of rings (rings of those brutally murdered during the Holocaust) with a message about how quickly the horrors of the murder of so many innocent lives could happen again. Immediately, the what I (for lack of a better word), call “the thought police,” commented right away attempting to shut down and shame me for posting a warning of what could happen during these specific times if we are not vigilant. Ironically, those comments almost validated the continual evergreen reminder of how history can unfortunately repeat itself if we are not vigilant… all starting with the clamping down on free speech and the shunning of those who do not “walk the line” whether in written or verbal word or now most commonly “social media posting word.”
I am personally grateful for the Minds.com community - a place where global free speech is fostered. Now is the time to NOT be silent. Now is the time to speak up, to share facts, opinions, dialogue with one another and to recognize that through discussion and even putting oneself out there to share viewpoints that are not always “popular” we can together guard against history repeating itself.