1 00:00:00,586 --> 00:00:04,894 Why is the Topf & Sons – Builders of the Auschwitz Ovens – Place of Remembrance important to you? 2 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:08,109 Topf & Sons in Erfurt offers an example 3 00:00:08,120 --> 00:00:10,664 of how completely ordinary people took part in 4 00:00:11,680 --> 00:00:16,350 perfecting the mass murder system within the framework of their commercial activities or as engineers. 5 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:21,340 So it wasn’t just the Nazis, we can’t just blame it all on Hitler; 6 00:00:21,660 --> 00:00:23,140 it was part of society. 7 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:25,660 They didn’t even make a lot of money on it, 8 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,400 but they wanted to make that profit all the same. 9 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:30,884 Their biggest incentive, however, was to achieve perfection, 10 00:00:31,020 --> 00:00:32,420 to perform the art of engineering, 11 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:34,800 and that shows how perverse it all was. 12 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:39,240 And for me, and I hope for others as well, it raises a question I have to ask myself: 13 00:00:39,580 --> 00:00:42,190 How would I deal with a situation like that today, in the present? 14 00:00:42,380 --> 00:00:46,080 Would I do business with anyone, or would I think about whether it’s really morally and ethically sound? 15 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:49,780 For Erfurt, it was an extremely important decision – 16 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:53,500 not only on the part of the city, but also on the part of the citizens – 17 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:57,740 to uncover this place of remembrance, 18 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:00,100 to extract its history from it, 19 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:04,640 also the unpleasant aspects, which were hushed up during the period of the German Democratic Republic. 20 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:09,520 And not just that, but also to have a place of encounter here where young people, 21 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:15,380 but also other groups, can come and work with the issues this place raises. 22 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:21,940 I think it was a very self-confident, well-considered stance the city adopted – 23 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:25,480 not simply to bury their heads in the sand and think: 24 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:31,564 “Better just smooth over the top and not talk about it; then we’ll be nice and clean and untainted.” 25 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:38,432 But instead to shed light on precisely this aspect of the history and direct attention to it. 26 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:40,487 I believe that not only helps the public, 27 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:46,820 but that it was also a decisive step for Erfurt 28 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:50,425 that met with a positive echo from all over the world.