Vogelsang – Place of responsibility (Jul, 2019)

Last month (June 20, 2019), we took one day off and decided spontaneously for a trip into the Eifel. We wanted to visit the documentation center of the former Nazi complex “Ordensburg Vogelsang”.

I didn’t know much about this place: the Nazis abused an idyllically situated landscape for their barbarous purposes and put up a huge building complex at this site. That was it.

When we arrived at this place, the first thing we’ve experienced is the deceptive idyll of an unprejudiced natural landscape in which the historic buildings seamlessly fit into. However, the more you explore this place and the more you realize the dimensions of the building complex, the more you become aware of what the Nazis have built here: a huge inhumane and despicable machinery with the only purpose to subjugate man and nature.

In addition to two other sites, Vogelsang was designed as an elite training centre for the political Nazi offspring. The Nazis wanted to indoctrinate the students with their inhumane racial ideology, hatred and unconditional obedience to the party. More and more we felt how real National Socialism was and how wrong the idyll of this place today is. And in fact, this place is charged with a huge responsibility.

The current operators of the facility deal with this responsibility in a very respectful and educational way. The new so-called “Forum Vogelsang IP” is an adequate framework in the truest sense of the word, as it breaks up the deceptive idyll of the landscape and encourages the visitors to question this historically charged place. This also includes speakers who guide the visitors through the facility (I recommend everyone to join such a tour, it’s definitely worth it).

We all have a responsibility to never forget and to do everything we can so that a Nazi dictatorship (or similar) and its ideology will never happen again. It is this responsibility of which you become aware when you visit a place like this.

Please find more information about the documentation center on their website ꜛ.