1
00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:05,088
Why is the Topf & Sons – Builders of the Auschwitz Ovens – Place of Remembrance important to you?

2
00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:09,300
It shows the tip of the iceberg of the Auschwitz SS,

3
00:00:10,460 --> 00:00:12,060
namely the incineration ovens.

4
00:00:12,820 --> 00:00:15,120
 It shows who built them,

5
00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:17,680
 who was involved,

6
00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:22,120
who organized the ventilation systems to air out the rooms

7
00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:25,627
after the corpses had been gassed.

8
00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:30,120
So essentially it shows

9
00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:34,020
what remained of the human beings apart from the ashes.

10
00:00:34,280 --> 00:00:37,347
 Of the human beings who didn’t survive.

11
00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:41,320
And this can be shown to the victims,

12
00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:48,608
and those victims – like Mrs Pusztai-Fahidi from Hungary – can talk about it.

13
00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,200
It goes to the innermost core of the inferno

14
00:00:52,480 --> 00:00:56,180
for which the preparations, so to speak, were made here,

15
00:00:56,760 --> 00:00:58,740
making Auschwitz possible

16
00:00:58,780 --> 00:01:01,524
with the efficiency of the incineration ovens

17
00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:04,920
and the ventilation systems.

18
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:07,244
And the striking thing about the exhibition is

19
00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:10,216
that it reconstructs that increase in efficiency

20
00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:12,048
as something that came out ideological motives,

21
00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:17,252
but also for reasons of personal professional advancement;

22
00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:19,093
 that’s what you have to look at here.

23
00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:21,067
You have to look at the letters

24
00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:23,380
begging to make even more

25
00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:26,232
 – and even more efficient – incineration ovens,

26
00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:30,332
and thus to rise to a higher position in the company.

27
00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:32,932
The exhibition shows that horrible increase in efficiency,

28
00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:36,260
and that’s why it’s so powerful.

29
00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:37,980
I think that,

30
00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:42,360
over the past decades, Germany has only become the democracy

31
00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:45,660
and constitutional state that it is today,

32
00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:51,184
and only has this willingness to help so-called “foreigners”,

33
00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:56,560
because Germany has remembered.

34
00:01:56,960 --> 00:01:59,080
Remembered the crimes

35
00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:02,487
and the tip of the iceberg of those crimes,

36
00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:06,867
namely the organization of Auschwitz,

37
00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:08,180
among other things,

38
00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:10,220
and above all the incineration ovens

39
00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,560
that were designed and produced here,

40
00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:17,200
by Topf & Sons!

41
00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,640
Of course we don’t face the dangers of National Socialism,

42
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,040
but we do have the beginnings,

43
00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:26,167
the brutalization of the language.

44
00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:29,960
And when you then go back

45
00:02:30,640 --> 00:02:34,607
and just look at that inferno for a moment,

46
00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:38,060
you’re motivated

47
00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:40,944
to take a stand against even those beginnings.

48
00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:43,350
Because they contribute to the annihilation of human beings,

49
00:02:43,350 --> 00:02:45,300
to the destruction of solidarity,

50
00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:47,600
of society,

51
00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:50,820
even just adopting a right-wing populist attitude.

52
00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:55,404
The unleashing of anger is always destructive.

53
00:02:55,920 --> 00:02:57,660
And totally unproductive.

54
00:02:58,460 --> 00:03:00,193
 What’s far more decisive

55
00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:04,440
is to make an effort to deal with difficult situations constructively,

56
00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:07,920
to stand together as democrats

57
00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:11,480
and create better conditions.

58
00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:14,740
For all the people who live here,

59
00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:17,633
including and especially the refugees!