Auschwitz II

27 gennaio - 2 febbraio 2010

"Arbeit Macht Frei" - work makes you free: the same sign that greeted the deportees at their arrival in Auschwitz greets the spectators entering the auditorium. The lager is here, today, the past knocks at our door and we are obliged to listen. We pass the gate of the concentration camp and we are not human beings anymore, identity is replaced by a number.

It is time to be undressed and shaved, dignity is taken away, it is time to wear a uniform and become an object among the objects. It is an out-of-time world made of piles of hair, clothes, shoes, piles of objects which used to belong to someone. Everything is stacked, every one of the remains has a place and a use because nothing of the animal will be wasted. We walk to the rhythm of a march, the hard work is endless: worn-out bodies in snow where dying is easy, bent by tortures under which it is easy to yield. The evil is a clear and meticulous mind, nothing is left to chance. It is "the machine", a perfect engine working with the rhythm of a factory, because the Holocaust is a daily application of simple and dull gestures.

We are led through this journey by the voice. There is the detached voice of the guide, because firstly it is essential to understand and have knowledge with the mind. There is the feeble and broken voice of men and women who lived the horror, because secondly we need to understand with our senses. And finally, there is the imposing choral voice of millions of victims demanding to be remembered, because in front of the extermination our mind must remain clear and present, so that it will not happen again.