A journey for all mankind

43 years ago today – on July 20, 1969 – spaceflight Apollo 11 landed the first humans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the moon.

I was able to meet Mr. Aldrin twice at book signing events at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC back in July 2009, and in July 2010. The first one I covered with German television news channel N24, and the second one I attended privately.

Book signing on July 19, 2009: 40^th Anniversary of Apollo 11.

Book signing on July 10, 2010: “Only hard cover copies will be for sale and signed. Due to the large crowds expected, Dr. Aldrin can only sign three books per person, and cannot do personalizations or sign memorabilia.“ (Note of the National Air and Space Museum)

At both events, Mr. Aldrin signed copies of his recent book Magnificent Desolation (2009, ISBN 978-0-307-46345-6). It is a great “memoir of self-destruction and self-renewal” (book blurb) and a must-read for people interested in spaceflight. Magnificent Desolation is the captivating story of someone who reached – literally – the top of the world and then, back on earth, fell into depression and also slipped into alcoholism. His book, except the first two and a half chapters describing the journey to the moon and back, mostly deals with Mr. Aldrin’s life crises after returning home. The second man to walk on the moon, a celebrated American hero, describes his struggles and failures in a very personal and touching way. Here’s an excerpt from pages 59-60:

“What’s left? I wondered. What’s a person do when his or her greatest dreams and challenges have been achieved? I reached over to the small table next to the chaise and reached for my drink, Scotch poured generously over some ice cubes. I sipped the whiskey and swished it around in my mouth, savoring the taste. I let it slide slowly down my throat as I leaned my head back and looked up at the sky. (…) Little more than three weeks before, I had been kicking up dust on the moon along with Neil Armstrong, the first two human beings ever to set foot on another planetary body in space. The entire world had watched us, listened to us, felt the tension as we nearly ran out of fuel attempting to land on the lunar surface. (…) I was only thirty-nine years of age, and I’d been to the top of my world. What else was left for me? What was I going to do with the rest of my life?”

Reader Bradley J. Knapp left an interesting review on Amazon: „Millions and millions of us can only imagine the adventure that our nation provided him, but instead, all we get is a mindless collection of stories about how terrible his life is. He’s probably 80 or so by now, but Buzz….grow up.“ I think, Mr. Knapp fails to recognize the actual story of this book (,which is definitely *not* another description of the events of 1969 and how uncomfortable the tiny spacecraft was), it is the story of an American icon, a person enshrined in mankind’s history, suffering from alcoholism, depression, and disorientation. Telling the truth, against all odds, reveals Mr. Aldrin’s heroic strength.

286 years ago…

…, on July 4, 1776, the United States adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. I took this photo from a roof-deck at 16th St. & I St. NW Washington, DC back in 2009  – right opposite the White House, the Washington Monument and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (from left to right). This is where the German television news channel N24 has its studios.

Visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial

A visit of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial in Poland is an emotional trip. It is shocking, sad, and beyond comprehension to see the site of mass murder. As a young German, born in the 1980s, I don’t feel personally responsible for what has happened, but I feel responsible for telling the story. I feel responsible to “not let this happen again”, and I feel responsible to uphold democracy.

I was planning to write a blog for years. Somehow, I never started writing (until now), and I never thought to blog about Auschwitz. But I felt deeply moved when I visited the site. What Władysław Bartoszewski thinks (professor and former Auschwitz prisoner) is what motivated me to post a selection of photos I made during my visit: „Millions of people around the world know what Auschwitz was but it is basic that we retain in our minds and memories awareness that it is humans who decide whether such a tragedy will ever take place again. This is the work of humans and it is humans alone who can prevent any such return.“ This is a small photographic documentary of what I have seen.

The “Arbeit mach frei”-sign looming over Auschwitz (“Work Makes You free”): A very sarcastic motto, as the guide explains, because prisoners arriving at Auschwitz were never meant to leave the camp again.

In a NYT article (“Auschwitz Shifts From Memorializing to Teaching“) the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum says: “The exhibition at Auschwitz no longer fulfills its role, as it used to. More or less eight to 10 million people go to such exhibitions around the world today, they cry, they ask why people didn’t react more at the time, why there were so few righteous, then they go home, see genocide on television and don’t move a finger. They don’t ask why they are not righteous themselves.“ 

Auschwitz was set up by Nazis in the suburds of Oświęcim, a small town in southern Poland. After the German invasion of Poland, Oświęcim was incorporated into Hitler’s Third Reich. The town’s name was changed to Auschwitz ,which also became the name of the death camp, Konzentrationslager Auschwitz.

“Auschwitz is forever a painful expression of the world’s bad conscience. The remains of the Nazi death camp remind us of the darkest moments of human history. It was here between 1940 and 1945 that the Nazis murdered more than a million Jews, as well as tens of thousands of Poles, Romanies and Sinti, Soviet POWs and other innocent people.” Flip side of an official Auschwitz guide.

The camp was liberated by Soviets on January 27, 1945. Amongst the 7.000 Auschwitz prisoners liberated on January 27, 1945 there were more than 500 children.

“In the period from spring 1942 to May 1944, about half a million Jewish men, women, and children were transported here from various countries occupied by or allied with Nazi Germany, and from Germany itself. (…) The Jews who were sent here were forcibly disembarked from the train onto a wooden platform along the siding. SS soldiers waited for them and carried out selection. Trucks were also waiting to carry the people selected for immediate death to the gas chambers. Usually, 70-75% of the people on each train were sent to the gas chambers.” Museum information display