アウシュヴィッツ Auschwitz

書かなければならないと思うし、読んでもらいたいと思う。(English ver. ↓↓↓)

⚠個人の感想です

多くのユダヤ人が殺された場所。ロマ、障がい者、同性愛者も迫害された。

現地で感じたのは、ナチスは彼らを殺害、迫害というよりも処理した、ということ。彼らは人の様に扱われなかった。獣として、でさえないかもしれない。素材、資源として扱われた。

アウシュヴィッツに到着した人は、医者達によって目視で、瞬時に、労働で役に立ちそうか二つに分けられる。役に立たなそうと判断された人(その多くは女性、子供、老人、障がい者)はそのままガス室へと誘導された。

役に立ちそうと判断された人(殆どが成人男性)は労働を強いられ、過酷な環境で餓死、凍死、疫病などを理由に殆どが亡くなった。

殺す前にナチスは使えるものを全て回収した。靴、服、義肢義足、カバン、メガネ、さらには髪の毛まで。労働力としての資源、生産の為の素材として扱われた。

ガス室は大量の人間を効率良く殺害(私の抱いた印象から言うと、処理)するために生み出された。

広島で見た展示を思い出した。広島での悲惨な歴史は、核爆弾によるものだった。勿論それを指示した人間がいて、実行した人間がいた。けれども、核爆弾によるものであった。しかし、アウシュヴィッツの歴史は、人間がシステムの中で、人間を処理した歴史だと感じた。

雑草が茂り、たんぽぽがあり、綺麗な小さい花が咲いていた。それは生の象徴のように感じた。

帰りの電車。ウクライナの男性と知り合い会話をした。正直、アウシュヴィッツの歴史を過去の惨劇として捉えていた節があった。今の日本人にとって、戦争は遠く感じるものだと思う。少なくとも私はそうだった。物価の上昇を通して感じることはあっても、あくまでも遠くで起こっている出来事。だが彼はウクライナの町、マリウポリの写真を二葉、戦争前のものと後のものを見せてくれた。

美しい夜景の写真と廃れた廃墟のような写真。モノクロ写真と見間違うほどに灰色の写真だった。戦争を人生で最も身近に感じた瞬間だった。

⚠This is my personal impressions.

I feel that I must write this down, and I want you to read it.

This is a place where many Jews were killed. Roma people, people with disabilities, and homosexuals were also persecuted.

What I felt there was that "process" is a more suitable word than "kill" or "persecute" to describe what the Nazis did. They did not treat them as human beings. They may not even have been treated as beasts. They were treated as resources and materials.

When people arrived at Auschwitz, doctors separated them into two groups at a glance and within seconds, based on whether they appeared capable of labor. Those judged unfit for work—many of them women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities—were sent directly to the gas chambers.

Those judged fit for work—mostly adult men—were forced to labor. In the harsh conditions, most of them eventually died from starvation, cold, disease, or exhaustion.

Before killing them, the Nazis took everything that could be useful: shoes, clothes, prosthetic limbs, bags, glasses, and even hair. People were treated as sources of labor and as raw materials for production.

Gas chambers were created in order to kill—or, from my impression, process—large numbers of people efficiently.

I was reminded of the exhibits I saw in Hiroshima. The tragedy of Hiroshima was caused by an atomic bomb. Of course, there were people who ordered its use and people who carried it out. However, mainly, Hiroshima made me think about the destructive power of a weapon.

However, Auschwitz felt different. It felt like a history in which human beings processed other human beings within a system. Auschwitz made me think about a system created by humans.

Weeds grew abundantly, dandelions were scattered around, and beautiful small flowers were blooming. To me, they seemed to symbolize life.

On the train back, I met and spoke with a Ukrainian man. To be honest, I had tended to think of Auschwitz as a tragedy of the past.

For many Japanese people today—and certainly for me—war feels distant. We may feel its effects through rising prices, but it still seems like something happening far away.

However, he showed me two photographs of his hometown, Mariupol: one from before the war and one from after it began.

The first showed a beautiful city at night. The second looked like a ruin. The image was so gray that I initially thought it was a black-and-white photograph. That was the moment I felt war most closely in my life.