Posts tagged history
The Absence of Vocabulary: Communicating the Suffering of the Nazi Death Camps

Recall, if you will, the worst day of your life.  Recall the sadness and emptiness felt in the loss of someone close to you.  Imagine the most intense sensation of pain you have ever felt: a broken bone, a separated shoulder, or a serious cut.  Recall now the greatest sense of fear you have experienced: the moment before a car accident or the imminent injury of your child.  Our pain is palpable, and when forced to recollect it, is communicated with deep emotion.  We use words such as sadness, terror, and fear to describe these events in our lives. Yet within the confines of the barbed wire and gas chambers of the Nazi camps, words are wholly insufficient.

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