getting ready for first scratchbuilt project- advice?

[peteski]

I also do not get all the negativity.
I simply asked for more details. If he is modeling the camp, it is not like he is a Holocaust denier. Growing up on Poland, I visited the camp on a school field trip. It left a lasting impression, but I woudl not judge someone simply based on a statement that he is building a model of it.  I think this world is getting way out of hand with sensitivity and perceived political correctness, but that is not a subject for this forum.

As far as modeling goes, if there is an ability to use a graphic design program like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator, I think it woudl be easy to come up with a folding paper model.  For surface finish I woudl use some wood board texture (likely found online).  Then print the models, fold, and glue them.

[NtheBasement]

I don't get it either.  I don't equate modeling with glorifying, plenty of run down decrepit buildings on layouts.  https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/living/features/auschwitz-model-tells-the-holocaust-story/article_ffe053ac-2c95-5321-865f-c87c34e7365c.html
Still, seeing that every time I entered the layout room would be too depressing for me.

[DeltaBravo]

Ok.  Elephant in the room. 


Why are you modeling this?

So I think this is a fair question to ask. Several folks have made assumptions as to motivation, but I don't see any response from Voldemort. What is your motivation for modeling a death camp?

[voldemort]

Sorry, haven't been on here for a couple of days.

There are a number of reasons why I chose this.

I'm a history buff.   I especially like social history (what life was like for the average person, not the prince leading the army.)  I think that Auschwitz and all that happened around that is one of the most profound demonstrations of what humans are capable of.  Of course it was horrible, despicable, just evil.  How did everyday people like my neighbours, government, even maybe me in another time accept that this is OK?  It astonishes me.  How did we collectively lose our moral compass?  I say 'we' rather than Germany as there is plenty of evidence that the allies knew what was happening. 

I had the opportunity 30 years ago to visit a different camp, I turned it down as i thought it would be too upsetting.  It is profoundly unsettling.  I don't want to in any way glorify it.  Like many of you I hope to get the details right (just like the right kind of conveyer belt used in whatever industry you're modelling).  I chose to do a humanity issue instead of an industrial.  I hope that the model will make people think again about something we can't be allowed to forget.  Reflecting especially on the 'whys' not the 'whats'. 

It can also be viewed in an academic way as an aspirational story (like a transatlantic railway).  Viktor Frankl's book 'Man's search for meaning' is profound.  Why are we here?  What makes us good or bad?  How could we be better? How do we sink?

Lots of reasons that have complexity behind them.

My first choice would have been modelling the panama canal construction. Again, something extraordinary in the history of the world.  Likely in a good way this time.  Another topic, but profoundly important in our histories.  It is beyond my skills.

I like to think that I'm trying to represent the real, rather than the rose coloured remembrances. 

I appreciate the concern.  Which is why I didn't bring it up in the beginning.

Thanks for your help

[Dave V]

That's a well articulated answer, thanks!

My own experience in the military gave me firsthand experience to man's inhumanity to man as well...  As a brand-new butterbar I led a combat weather team in Bosnia as part of the NATO peacekeeping force.  We went to Banja Luka in the British sector where they were finding mass graves.  There was a sawmill there where Serbs had been sawing Bosniac Muslims in half while they were still alive.  Meeting the survivors of the massacre at Srebrenica--virtually all of whom had been gang-raped while their soon-to-be-executed husbands and fathers were forced to watch--made a deep and lasting impression on me.  Years later I saw some of that same cruelty in Iraq, although not so systematic as what had happened in Bosnia.  There is no limit to man's cruelty when he believes that God and history are on his side.

For me, model railroading is how I escape the things that bother me.  But to each his own!

[DeltaBravo]

Voldemort,
 Thank you for answering the question. I want to share with you a few thoughts as you consider this project. First, my mother-in law lost every member of her family in Europe, except for one cousin, who as a small child, and who was hidden from the Nazis by a neighbor. Her family was rounded up taken into a field and murdered for being Jewish.  Second, though your intention might not be to glorify the Nazi regime or its final solution, your building of a model of an active concentration camp will do just that. If you are really interested in modeling a concentration camp for historical interest, you should do it in is't current form as a memorial and museum for those lost. Otherwise you are glorifying the Nazi regime and their murder camps. Third, you could model the German rail system, if that is your real interest, without a death camp being an active part of the model. You could do a marshalling yard with war material be off loaded for truck and wagon transit to the front. You could model damaged lines and locomotives caused by allied attack. All of which can be historically accurate without the need of a model of a concentration camp. There are many examples of the construction and use of a railroad changing history, all of which you could model without needing to actively show the efficiency of the Nazi murder machine.  The thoughts I expressed here and not meant as an attack, but I want to offer perspective from someone who's extended family was murdered by the people and the system you want to raise up. Tread lightly and please reconsider.

[CRL]

Sorry, but I see no positive outcome from such a project.

[Simon D.]

It's been done:  Diorama of Auschwitz as part of the the London Imperial War Museum Holocaust exhibition.  H0 model.  All painted white, and stunningly effective.  No really good pictures or web pages I can find unfortunately.


https://www.modelhouses.co.uk/portfolio-item/auschwitz/

[delamaize]

If it's being done for a museum or something like that, I see the point, and I think it's appropriate. But just as a model for your own/private use, strikes me as pretty inappropriate.

[GhengisKong]

Go for it Voldemort. Your wallet your choice.

[voldemort]

I want to point out that it is not a public item- it is my own.  It cannot become some neo-nazi icon/monument. 

It is already serving a purpose.  I've had the most wonderful discussions with my kids and nephews about the horrible times.  About warfare.  Economics.  Politics.  Evil.  Pallels in history.  Napoleon.  Genghis Khan.  Churchill.  The dichotomies and inconsistencies. 

I am reminded of the often quoted:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

Forgetting.  Not educating/ questioning yourself/ thinking when you get an opportunity.  Those are doing nothings.

But again, the only people that see it are myself, a couple of close friends and some family.  It is not a public exhibit

BTW Churchill effectively starved India in WW2 so that they could serve white bread in England (diverting shipping from famine relief to wheat imports).   By most measures a good man.  I'm rambling.

I, of course, absolutely condemn everything that was done in Auschwitz.  But it happened.  Lets not forget

[tehachapifan]

And the fact that it did become such an efficient machine, as someone put it earlier, is what is so frightening to me. Coupled with the fact so many people became willing participants, who I'm assuming would never have imagined being complicit in such atrocities only a few years earlier. Shows how easily people can be manipulated over time, when the abnormal or, in this case, the unimaginable slowly becomes normalized. This is what we need to watch out for and why I think it's important to talk about it. The older I get, the more recent I realize this all was. Let us never forget it happened.

[CRL]

BTW Churchill effectively starved India in WW2 so that they could serve white bread in England (diverting shipping from famine relief to wheat imports).   By most measures a good man.

And, just to be fair, here’s the other side of this accusation: https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/did-churchill-cause-the-bengal-famine/

[wazzou]

If you've ever had an opportunity to see the show "Mysteries of the Abandoned", there are many episodes that have some segment showing an abandoned Nazi German installation somewhere in the World.
It is quite staggering the resources invested for a singular vile goal.
There was an episode that showed an unbelievably massive "seaside resort" where normal, hard working German people were brought in by ship under the guise of leasure but it was strictly a mechanism for the Nazi propaganda machine.
I think the multi story building/s were completely connected and were over two miles long, along the Coast.
So think of thousands of people, all at one time, rotating in, being brainwashed that what was occurring was worthy of great National pride and sacrifice.

[GaryHinshaw]

Having the context explained is very helpful.  With a handle like @voldemort , I'm sure you can imagine many here were scratching our heads wondering what to make of all this.  If you choose to share your progress going forward, keep in mind that others here will not have seen this thread and will have similar questions about your motives.  Perhaps when you have significant updates, you could provide a link to this thread as a backgrounder.