James Lawton: England right to seek reality shock

www.independent.co.uk/News of Friday, June 8th, 2012

Just before their first match in the European Soccer Championships which will start today, the English national team will visit the former German concentrationcamp at Auschwitz. They will be accompanied by Avram Grant, the Israeli former manager of Chelsea. Grant predicts the visit to Auschwitz will change their lives, as it did with so many visitors who came to see this place of horror.

The 1997 English soccer team visited Auschwitz as well and reportedly there was not a sound in the bus when the bus left the grounds of the camp. There was only shock when some English “fans”were photographing each other and making Hitler signs when the bus was at the gates of the camp. This illustrates that it would be foolish to think that the host nation of the football tournament is the only country capable of racism.

Some people think the soccer players are too spoilt to be moved by what they see in Auschwitz. However, for those with children the horried room filled with small shoes would be enough to fill them with sadness about the atrocities that took place in this place.

Some critics say it is ridiculous to expose these soccer players to a place like Auschwitz just before the start of a big tournament like the European Soccer Championships,but when will be the right time?

Reaction:

I think it is very good of the English team to visit Auschwitz. There is no good timing to visit a place like this. I think everybody should see one of the concentration camps once.  This is a part of history that should never be forgotten and it should never happen again. To realize that people can be capable of such atrocities is beyond belief. I have been to Theresienstadt myself and it is a very depressing place. There is still a stale smell of death and there are so many letters, drawings of children that passed through this camp on their way to death;  there is only silence there, no singing of birds, no laughter and joy. It was a visit I will never forget.