Irish tourist scratches his name into the wall at Auschwitz

Danzy · 09-10-2018 9:07pm

Hitman3000 wrote: »

Ok, I thought it was the inner prison wall where prisoners were regularly shot. I remember seeing several uniformed Israeli soldiers yelling and making the V sign in this area. I thought at the time it was incredibly disrespectful as most of those that perished in Auschwitz were not Jewish. Birkenkau was where the Jews suffered the most.

We were on about Newgrange.

Side tracked.

Hitman3000 · 09-10-2018 9:08pm

Danzy wrote:

We were on about Newgrange.

Crossed wires my bad.

Dan Jaman · 09-10-2018 9:09pm

There's a limit to the number of bad taste puns that can be absorbed. Jes'stop eh?

Danzy · 09-10-2018 9:09pm

Hitman3000 wrote: »

Crossed wires my bad.

Easy to see how it happened though.

dublinman1990 · 09-10-2018 9:21pm

I did not expect a 38 year old man to do this kind of stuff at a monument in a place which deserves a lot of respect & empathy from wide numbers of people. He should be a more mature person at that age. What he did by writing his name on the wall was not showing that at all. People with appropriate levels of decency in them will not be impressed one bit with this type of behaviour.

He should get a harsh punishment from the authorities who arrested & charged him. I won't be giving him any sympathy.

09-10-2018 10:11pm

Ye are a mad bunch over here in AH!!

(heads back to the relative sanity of the weather forum)

Sardonicat · 09-10-2018 10:15pm

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Danzy wrote: »

Not sure if your hyper drole or being serious.

How do you mean? Such actions inside the camps are taken very seriously by the authorities. It won't be a slap on the wrist he gets.

Eh, it's in Poland. The Germans left some time ago.

The Talking Bread · 09-10-2018 10:22pm

Sardonicat wrote: »

Eh, it's in Poland. The Germans left some time ago.

YES WE GET IT ! For the 20OTH TIME!

I was thinking about Dachau!

We have gone over and over this........................

Hitman3000 · 09-10-2018 10:28pm

Sardonicat wrote:

Eh, it's in Poland. The Germans left some time ago.

Yes Auschwitz is in Poland near Krakow. However during the 2nd world war Germany controlled Poland under a government ran by a guy called Frank ( German Nazi) who viewed Poles/Jews the same way as we view rats and the contraction camps of which there was many in Poland were under the authority and control of the Germans . Millions of Poles died under the occupation of the Germans and many of that number in the various camps.

Sardonicat · 09-10-2018 10:32pm

Hitman3000 wrote: »

Sardonicat wrote:

Eh, it's in Poland. The Germans left some time ago.

Yes Auschwitz is in Poland near Krakow. However during the 2nd world war Germany controlled Poland under a government ran by a guy called Frank ( German Nazi) who viewed Poles/Jews the same way as we view rats and the contraction camps of which there was many in Poland were under the authority and control of the Germans . Millions of Poles died under the occupation of the Germans and many of that number in the various camps.

Yes, I am actually aware of this. But thanks for the potted history .

keith_sixteen · 09-10-2018 10:38pm

Harry Palmr wrote: »

You'll probably find most Poles think the Holocaust was a fake news story now. They seem to have become quite authoritarian right wing recently.

You are uterrly clueless.

pajoguy · 10-10-2018 1:02am

I saw this as I was about to leave Krakow tonight. I was in auschwitz on Sunday also and took one of the english tours around 1pm. There were 8 of us but no other Irish in the group. We saw names on walls and one of our group said comin home tonight that he saw names of people and the year 2017 on walls so this is not a first.
However having taken the tour which was hosted by a lovely, softly spoken lady I find it hard to comprehend how somebody could intentionally vandalise in any way this place. The person may not have killed anybody but at 38 and having taken the decision to visit this place you would imagine they would have some bit of intelligence. It was desperate what happened to the families here. I cannot understand what was going through his head. I am a year older than this man.

uck51js9zml2yt · 10-10-2018 1:05am

Dan Jaman wrote: »

There's a limit to the number of bad taste puns that can be absorbed. Jes'stop eh?

At least no cute bunny rabbits were harmed.:)

sligojoek · 10-10-2018 1:28am

I'd say the writing is on the wall for him.

extra gravy · 10-10-2018 1:30am

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/08/us-tourists-caught-carving-names-into-colosseum-rome

Reminded me of this from a few years ago.

Charles Ingles · 10-10-2018 1:52am

Love to have a conversation with this idiot

Dan Jaman · 10-10-2018 1:53am

extra gravy wrote: »

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/08/us-tourists-caught-carving-names-into-colosseum-rome

Reminded me of this from a few years ago.

Wouldn't be the first time.

Larbre34 · 10-10-2018 3:35am

CinemaGuy45 wrote: »

Just in closing serious points made in this thread.

Everybody thinks this guy is a total moron who deserves what he gets.
Nobody on the thread has expressed the least bit of sympathy for him.

If he has a job there is a good chance he will not have it for much longer.
I am sure none of the people here cracking jokes would try and defend this knob in any way.

I might make jokes about death but I show the greatest respect in a cemetery.

Well put.

I don't think it should or will cost him a job though. If he had attempted to vandalise the place or daub neo nazi graffiti or something, then he'd be looking at jail time and job loss / death threats / social isolation. He just did something very moronic following the disrespect of other morons. He admitted it right away and said he would accept whatever punishment deemed fit. A momentary lapse of reason that hopefully reminds people to be less selfish and thoughtless.

For those feeling outraged about a few puns, remember that one of the great human coping mechanisms is humour. Often dark humour. It can be salutary, keeping the true horror of what happened in the memory. Some of the greatest jewish comedians and comic writers have reflected on the holocaust and the war, Larry David, Mel Brooks, David Baddiel, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman and many more have done so to greater or lesser effect.

One of the most effective I ever heard of was a line Woody Allen wrote for a character in one of his films:

"Do you care even about the Holocaust or do you think it never happened??!”

“Not only do I know that we lost six million, but the scary thing is records are made to be broken.....”

ANDREWMUFC · 10-10-2018 4:06am

Ohhh grace just hold me in ur arms and let this moment linger, they’ll take me out at dawn and I will die, with all my love I’ll place this wedding ring upon ur finger

Snickers Man · 10-10-2018 4:22am

MagicThree18 wrote: »

"The fuck?"

Do you mean What the fuck?

I'd rather a little blackly-humoured punnery over your transatlantic-drift grammar any day of the week.

Anyway, we say "Ah now hee-er!" in this country.

harry Bailey esq · 10-10-2018 5:10am

MagicThree18 wrote: »

Wow. Just wow.

Much worse things happened there, his mates thought it was gas.

fergus1001 · 10-10-2018 10:14am

Putinbot wrote:

Mod- Knock it off. Anne can't answer or defend him/herself.

which one ?

seamus · 10-10-2018 10:25am

I wonder is he special needs.

I can't see how a 38 year old man in his full faculties would ever consider this to be reasonable behaviour.

Hoboo · 10-10-2018 10:30am

seamus wrote: »

I wonder is he special needs.

I can't see how a 38 year old man in his full faculties would ever consider this to be reasonable behaviour.

You've obviously never been to Leitrim.

Wibbs · 10-10-2018 10:50am

seamus wrote: »

I wonder is he special needs.

I can't see how a 38 year old man in his full faculties would ever consider this to be reasonable behaviour.

The need to mark one's name is a very common and strong human need. Especially in places of high cultural relevance, no matter the relevance itself.

Go to any historic site, even going back thousands of years and you will be nearly guaranteed to find "Kilroy was here" type graffiti going back many centuries. The only writing* so far found on the Great Pyramid of Egypt is graffiti of this type, written at the time of construction(and how we know who it was actually built for). It's also covered with names from the many centuries in between and up to today. There is thousand year old graffiti to be found in Newgrange and a few 17th, 18th and 19th century scribblings too.

If there is already an area covered with names, this acts as a magnet for more names to follow and makes it seem somewhat accepted as a group effort(EG the wall of the Abbey Road studios covered in Beatle's fan scribblings). Even in such a place as Auschwitz. A blasphemy like Auschwitz can even add to the draw. Beyond the ego souvenir aspect, scratching a name into such a horror can be felt as a weird benediction and a memento mori and a reminder that you're at least alive to scribble it as a witness.

Such places evoke many feelings. Our culture possesses it as a thing for us all. An individual may seek to possess or add to it on the personal level. Only a few years back a few idiots made off with the camp entrance sign. An icon indeed. It seemed they didn't steal it to sell it, but just to possess it as a cultural totem(IIRC it's now indoors in a museum and a replica takes its former place).

So while I in no way condone such a thing, nor would even begin consider it myself, I can see that it doesn't require an explanation or excuse like "special needs" for someone to do such a thing.

*unusually it's the only such structure of ancient Egypt that is devoid of hieroglyphs.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5 · 10-10-2018 10:55am

I come from the burren, the limestone pavements are a delicate landscape. There are signs up everywhere gently reminding tourists not to be building their own dolmens, they all get the exact same fit of inspiration after seeing them

dxhound2005 · 10-10-2018 11:02am

Memento mori.

Hitman3000 · 10-10-2018 11:09am

I think defacing a wall/ memorial such as Auschwitz is despicable. Strangely though on other sites (and I know it's a contradiction) don't bother me. An example I was on the tower in Charles bridge in Prague and saw a scratched name of someone dating from 1669, instead of being offended I wondered how the view looked to the graffiti artist at the time. Again I know a contradiction.

Bob24 · 10-10-2018 11:13am

seamus wrote: »

I wonder is he special needs.

I can't see how a 38 year old man in his full faculties would ever consider this to be reasonable behaviour.

I think lack of respect/consideration for the past and pure edonism is a gradual slope our society is going through and different people are at different stages.

I was in Auschwitz 2 years ago and while not a majority you wouldn’t believe the amount of adults who were there taking a selfie with a smiley face under the “arbeit macht frei” sign or in a death chamber.

Of course carving one’s name is more severe. But I’d say the selfie people have already reached the point whereby it is just another tourist spot they are visiting with nothing special about it, with one major goal while visiting the site being to show off to people they know how much they are enjoying their life visiting places. To me the name carving thing is just the next step for someone who on top of that lack of empathy about the past of the site they are visiting has no respect for public property/monuments.

Aglomerado · 10-10-2018 11:14am

Remi Delicious Source wrote: »

I come from the burren, the limestone pavements are a delicate landscape. There are signs up everywhere gently reminding tourists not to be building their own dolmens, they all get the exact same fit of inspiration after seeing them

There used to be dozens of mini dolmens at Poulnabrone, long before they roped off the main one.

This guy's a f*8ing idiot, as are the smiling selfie takers at the Arbeit Macht Frei gate...

Irish tourist scratches his name into the wall at Auschwitz

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