Should this one be left to rot?

[FamilyWiggs]

Interseting article over at the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7827534.stm

Not quite PeriodProperty, but not entirely off-topic as Auchswitz is clearly a building of historical significance and I am sure that many of us are interested in more than simply the architecural merits of historical buildings.

For my money I would preserve it. Partly in its own right, and partly as a physical link to a fundamentally important period of human history.

But I guess the question is - can it ever be justified to destroy a building/link with the past because what it represents is too heinous? Are there any other examples that were horrendous in their own time, but which from our more distant view we are glad have been preserved?

 

[Pford75]

The Tower of London held, tortured and executed a long line of people for a variety of reasons...many religious persecution or simply disagreeing with the Monarch. But today it stands as an important piece of history.

For my money, Auschwitz represents the very worst of mans inhumanity to man and the fact that people were capable on constructing something with the primary aim of exterminating as many people as quickly and cheaply as possible is almost too horrible to comprehend. For this reason, I believe it serves as a valuable reminder of just what people can be capable of. It's also a relatively unique (if that's the right word) piece of architecture.

More recently, the West's house was demolished. This was supposedly to prevent someone with a ghoulish fasinaction turning it into some kind of curio.

 

[DaveBrigg]

I went there about ten years ago. An eerie place, but without the sinister atmosphere that I anticipated. The majority of the wooden buildings, and gas chambers, were destroyed just before or after liberation, leaving a strange sight of dozens of brick chimneys from the living quarters poking out of the weeds. IMHO it ought to be preserved, as a warning, and to confound those who deny that that Holocaust happened. There were successful protests a couple of years ago to stop a supemarket being built next door.
In this country, the Tower of London has seen its fair share of murders and executions, although I don't think the two sites are comparable. Clifford's Tower in York has a memorial to 150 Jews killed there in 1190, but the building itself is a stone replacement for the wooden keep burnt down in the attack.

 

[Penners]

I can't remember who it was that said something like: "Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them".

We need powerful, physical reminders of those lessons.

 

[Flyfisher]

I've also heard that quotation but was unsure of the author so I checked (not exhaustively!) and found:

George Santayana:
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

However, I also found this rather more gloomy entry:

George Bernard Shaw:
We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.

 

[Penners]

Thanks, FF. I feel a little better about not remembering the source of the quote. I thought it might have been someone obvious like Shakespeare, Pope or William McGonagall.

I'm not too ashamed at never having heard of George Santayana.

 

[Flyfisher]

Well, Penners, I must admit to some disappointment at your lack of awareness of 19th century Spanish philosopher/poet/essayists.
Still, I thought he might have been related to a well known Mexican guitarist.

 

[Penners]

One too many syllables, I think. And maybe Carlos, rather than George?

 

[middi]

I do not think it is necessary to preserve the "actual" camps as these would be a burden on the world heritage maintainance, the original fabric would eventually rot thousands of years before history is forgotten. I would suggest the camps to be cleared and a MASSIVE granite stone ( a bit like stonehenge) to be erected on the site(s) inscripted to denote the atrocities committed by the nazi regime.

They should last quite a few thousands of yeas with no upkeep required.

 

[Flyfisher]

One too many syllables, I think. And maybe Carlos, rather than George?

Well, yes, except that then he probably would be a well known Mexican guitarist, rather than a relation . . . maybe, possibly.

Ever noticed how few jokes survive an explanation?

 

[DaveBrigg]

After the Great War it was proposed (and supported by Winston Churchill) that the ruins of Ypres be left as they were, as a memorial. I think practicalities got in the way, not least the concerns of Belgian civilians who started returning to reclaim their properties and rebuild their lives. The Cloth Hall and St Martins Cathedral were rebuilt too, funded by German reparations, and looking around the town now it is hard to believe that virtually every building was constructed less than ninety years ago.

 

[Lime]

Those of you who have read the story through and watched the video will realise that the actual brick structures have been allowed to get into a poor state.
Also that the earth movement on the site will continue to cause damage.
The visitors have contributed to the destruction too by their numbers and small souvenir collectors.
I understood by what was said that most of the money that gets spent is mainly on making the site safe for visitors i.e. fencing off most of the ruins, and preserving all the millions of artifacts they still have to preserve if any are going to survive.
Tons of hair are slowly decaying for instance.
I did not get the impression that they wished to rebuild just allow the decay without nature overrunning it.
So far Poland have funded most of the money.

 

[michael]

If Auchswitz has to be demolished on moral grounds then I’m sure there are hundreds if not thousands of buildings around the world that have also witnessed mans inhumanity on a most heinous scale that should also be considered for demolition.

Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t the extermination rate under Stalin about 60 million people (not 6 million) and weren’t a similar number of people murdered in China under Mao Si Tung?

Just those two examples should be good for at least 1000 buildings worthy of demolition

Let’s also consider Cambodia, Rwanda, Argentina and Chile and now Zimbabwe.

I think we could find ourselves on a very slippery slope here if all the dark periods of mans history have to be marked with the demolition of a building.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Then, where does it end:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/7856698.stm

 

[Lime]

Where does it end indeed.
We live in such spoilt times.
(I'd say godless but I have never believed in one.)
let's knock down a house in which anyone died or nearly died just in case of bad vibes.
While I have sympathy for the relatives grieving over their lost loved one I cannot see that any good is served by destroying a house just because they have good reason to hate what went on within it.
The object to hate is the murderer not the house.

Then there is the modern attitude towards death which is born of ignorance, fear and the unfamiliar.
Ask people if they want to live in a house where someone died and most wouldn't want to.
Yet if every house was pulled down that had a death occur within it there wouldn't be many left.

 

[biffvernon]

Should this one have been left to rot?

or should it have had a few bob spent on it?

more

 

[FamilyWiggs]

It was rather grim, wasn't it?

Was interested in the "conservation double glazing" though.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Bright orange kitchen? Steel walkway? Absolutely hideous.

 

[Pford75]

The new building is not to my personal taste...but then I can accept that other people are entitled to their own views.

Anyway, I'm not sure that in the current climate, with so much emphasis on reuse, we should be criticising anyone for bringing what was clearly a wreck back into use as a family house vs. creating demand for another 'box' on a housing estate

 

[Lime]

It looks like it was built out of my old Bayko building kit.
Far better than a Barret box any day and the house in the picture is better too.