History is always with us

History has a way of surprising you. And that’s exactly what happened to me when I visited the site of the Klooga concentration camp last week. I was told that many of the bodies of those who died at the Klooga concentration camp were, in fact, now buried there, directly below where we stood. That’s when it hit me – here I was standing over the bodies of Holocaust victims and up to this point the Holocaust has only been something I had learned about in history class! I never thought the first time I’d stand at the site of a former Nazi concentration camp would be in Estonia. I’d always thought of Germany and Poland when I thought about the Holocaust. But Estonia, while occupied by Nazi Germany, was not spared from the Holocaust, and Klooga (now a memorial commemorating those who died there) is evidence of its devastation.

Ambassador Levine speaking with exhibit curator Olev Liivik

I was travelling with Ambassador Levine and embassy staff to see the Klooga Memorial and we were joined there by experts from the Estonian History Museum who showed us the new permanent, outdoor exhibition “Klooga Camp and the Holocaust,” which was opened on September 16, 2013. The focus of the exhibition is the heinous liquidation of the camp in September 1944, when the Germans executed all the prisoners there before retreating from the advancing Soviet Army. The exhibition is made up of large, angled concrete blocks spread out across the camp area. A zig-zag trail leads the visitor from one block to the next and each concrete block has photos and descriptions of different aspects of the Klooga camp and its history, in Estonian, English and Russian.

I remember hearing from the exhibition’s curator Olev Liivik that the Klooga camp was actually considered one of the “good” camps, if there was such a thing. When I heard that, the only thing I could think of was how cold I was with four layers of clothes on, and how cold the prisoners must have been in January and February. It gave such a stark reminder of the brutality of the Nazis, no matter where in Nazi-held areas you happened to be.

For me, I needed a moment to take in the surroundings, knowing that the now forested areas were once execution sites. Although nothing remains of the camp, the exhibition serves to remind people that one of the largest mass murders in Estonian history occurred here. Though the topic is tragic, I was very impressed with the care and thoughtfulness that was put into this memorial. The designers and curators took great pains to preserve Klooga’s history as a reminder to us all of the importance of respecting religious and all kinds of diversity, and to standing up against prejudice, tyranny, and intolerance.

Blog post by PAS Intern Ayesha Hamza
Photos by PAS Cultural Assistant Tiiu Vitsut