getting ready for first scratchbuilt project- advice?

[w neal]

Well done Voldy! You sneaky guy. They didn't even recognize it at first. It only took one generation to forget. Thats the real tragedy. You had to TELL them before they identified it. So sad.

[GaryHinshaw]

Many of us knew what it was.  What we didn't know is why?

[peteski]

Well done Voldy! You sneaky guy. They didn't even recognize it at first. It only took one generation to forget. Thats the real tragedy. You had to TELL them before they identified it. So sad.

Today's kids are several generations removed from the Holocaust.  So you are being cheeky.  Even I (growing up in Poland in the '60s and '70s) was one generation removed from it.  My mom was born few years before WWII, so at least, as a child, she remembers some of the Nazi occupation, and what they were doing to the Jews in the town she lived in.  While the war ended few decades before I could understand it, there were still plenty of signs of that war arounf me. Things like buildings with stucco pockmarked by shrapnel, and other abandoned war artifacts. But to me it is just history. Today's kids are few more generations removed from that time. Also, the schools in USA really don't get very deep into European history (including WWII, or the Holocaust).  I don't really expect today's school-age kits in this country having much knowledge of that time period.

[w neal]

He was being cheeky from the start. Its a joke. He played most of you all, like a violin. A bit premature however. Its a shame he didn't save it for April 1st. Bad Voldy!!

I mean, with a screen name like Voldemort, should we expect puppies and kittens? I bet he'll be posting pictures of his Tyco unit train of 100 Old Dutch Cleanser cars next. Or maybe his diorama of the Montreal, Maine, & Atlatic derailment in Quebec or...

[GaryHinshaw]

Still waiting for the punch line then.

[w neal]

We are

[chicken45]

He was being cheeky from the start. Its a joke. He played most of you all, like a violin. A bit premature however. Its a shame he didn't save it for April 1st. Bad Voldy!!

I mean, with a screen name like Voldemort, should we expect puppies and kittens? I bet he'll be posting pictures of his Tyco unit train of 100 Old Dutch Cleanser cars next. Or maybe his diorama of the Montreal, Maine, & Atlatic derailment in Quebec or...

If that’s the case, he’s been playing the long game.  Take a look through his post history. I do not think we are being trolled here. 

[voldemort]

No, its real.  I have though been thinking of remaking it a bit to reflect what is at Auschwitz now.  (Ruins etc)

I think the topic has moved from the model train focus now.  I'd suggest we a) think about it ourselves and b) move on

I do very much appreciate the help you've all been

David

[sirenwerks]

... 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 love this.  Many people forget what this lesson has led to, besides the loss.  Honestly, I doubt most Americans can understand the profound change in German civilization that came after WWII and the realizations that came with it.  Half of my background is Sinti Roma from eastern Europe, and we were heavily impacted by the Russian Civil War and the Nazi Reich's rise, so I spent a fair amount of my college years exploring that history and if you pay attention to the culture that radiated from Germany after - visible in the likes of films by Wim Wenders, writings by Gunter Grass, paintings and installations of Anselm Kiefer, and the movement of the German Green Party - the reckoning is nothing short of glorious.  While it didn't happen in all German people, it happened in enough of a majority to set the country on a true path.  A similar reckoning came to the Japanese after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Everyone should take up such lessons and Americans should stop being critical of the world and giving more credence to the domestic lessons that come with stories told in films like The Green Book and Snow Falling on Cedars.  And even if it is nothing more than a personal exercise for David, we should support it as modelers and humanists.

[johnb]

OK, I'm officially out.

me too.

[mmagliaro]

I had not noticed this thread when it was fresh.
I held off posting anything for a long time, but it came up again in another thread that linked to here, and I
think I'm ready to "expound" now.

It is hard to put in to words why so many people (including me) find this offensive.  And no, I really do not like sanitizing everything behind a wall of political correctness.
 
I get that voldemort is building this as a historical, educational effort of some kind.  I get the motivation to "never forget".  But what I do NOT get is how making a scale model of the camp accomplishes those goals.  Yes, you may have a few children or relatives who see the model, ask questions, and then open a whole discussion about the Holocaust, about what human beings are capable of doing to each other.  But a detailed model like this is hardly necessary to facilitate that.   Exploring the nuances, the torture, the mechanics, the mind control, etc, that the Nazis used isn't enhanced by making a full scale model.  There are tons of books and video on the real thing, not to mention documentaries, if you really want to discuss this, explore it, make sure your children and grandchildren never forget.  Building a model, to me, is a macabre, very dark way to explore this subject.  Without meaning to, this model somehow glorifies it, even though that wasn't your intention (and do sincerely believe that wasn't your intention).

As an aside, this isn't at all like building dioramas of civil war battles.  That would be like building dioramas of WWII battle scenes. A death camp is something else entirely.  It's not battle or war.  It is a physical model of sick, animalistic dehumanization.

[John]

I think Max has said it all and summarized how many here feel .. I'm locking this now.