Auschwitz and apartheid: which do we know better?
May 3, 2010
I had these two pictures in my sermon yesterday, and asked the congregation to recognize them.
I wondered whether anyone would recognize the first. But within a few guesses one of the high-school girls had it: Auschwitz.
Later the second was shown. But no matter what, no one could recognize this. My colleague, had to point it out: The Apartheidmuseum.
We seriously need to get in touch with our own history…
my contemplations 
May 4, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Beste Cobus,
Dis nou al ‘n geruime tyd wat ek voel dat dit tyd geword het om vir jou hallo te se. Dankie vir hierdie post oor Auschwitz en die Apartheid museum!
As jy lus voel, sal dit vir my lekker wees om per epos te gesels.
Groete
Ferdie Mulder
May 5, 2010 at 7:43 am
While I agree that we ought to be in touch with our own history, I’m not sure that the apartheid museum is the best image of it — what about a photo of the bodies lying on the ground after the Sharpeville shooting, or the unconscious Hector Pieterson being
carried by fellow student Mbuyisa Makhubo, with Hector’s sister, Antoinette Sithole, running alongside?
May 6, 2010 at 3:07 am
I’m inclined to agree with Steve. Maybe even a photo of Robben Island–any of those would more closely parallel a photo of Auschwitz. A fairer comparison might have been the Holocaust Museum or Yad Veshem with the Apartheid Museum.
Museums just aren’t as recognizable as iconic moments or places.
May 17, 2010 at 5:42 pm
[…] recently wrote two comments on the Apartheid system in South Africa. On 3 May 2010 in his comment “Auschwitz and Apartheid: which do we know better?” he very cleverly links Apartheid to the Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz. On page 32 of his book, […]