Submitted by Joshua Gower on the 2017 winter session program in Austria and Hungary sponsored by the College of Education and Human Development…
Going into this trip, I had no lofty expectations, and no issue with adapting to things outside of my own cultural norm. Without having any expectations, and with an open mind, Austria forever engraved a special place into my heart. To be completely truthful, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew nothing about Austria or Hungary for that matter, didn’t speak the language of either country, but I still felt drawn to go on this program. While we only spent a week in Vienna, my group was able to experience the best Austria had to offer. We visited a plethora of places, from the Hofburg Palace to the Schönbrunn Palace, which were the winter and summer palaces for the infamous Hapsburgs, to visiting the humbling site of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. This culturally and historically rich country often times gets confused with Australia, even on the iPhone for some time, which is where the phrase “No kangaroos in Austria” comes from, because in actuality this country has so much to offer on its own.
I could drone on and on about all the beautiful and breathtaking sites that we saw, but I would like to, instead, draw your attention to one particular incident that really allowed me to fully understand how much these natives care for their country and its importance in this world. On January 7th, we visited the infamous Mauthausen Concentration Camp, a site in which over 100,000 prisoners were ruthlessly murdered by the SS of Germany. I have said this time and time again, you can never fully grasp the depth of this atrocity without visiting it and seeing all the deplorable sleeping conditions and the various grave sites and memorials where so many people had their life taken from them for no reason at all. Still, as I was walking in the paths that prisoners once walked, and stood on the floors that prisoners used to sleep on, it didn’t hit me. I was angry for sure, I was downright furious. Except, I wasn’t mad at the German SS, I was mad at myself. After walking through all of this and experiencing this, I still couldn’t empathize; I couldn’t truly feel how they felt, so I was angry that I didn’t allow myself to open up.
At the time, we were with our tour guide Siggy, who was absolutely phenomenal. It wasn’t until Siggy showed me that I couldn’t truly empathize with these prisoners that I stopped becoming angry. I finally realized it was foolish to expect to be able to empathize with them; instead, I made it my mission to sympathize the best I could. As we were ending our tour, Siggy did something I never thought she would do, she took out candles and allowed us to light them and place them in various spots in the memorial room that had pictures of all the prisoners who lost their lives. That’s when it hit me, then and there. As we made our way through to the “Room of Names” that was a room with all 90,000 known people who were murdered by German SS, and then through the Gas Chamber. The Gas Chamber was the most sobering of experiences. The act alone of Siggy to allow us to give our own memorial, was example enough for me that these people truly cared about their culture, and their past, even in the most horrible of times.
I was a wreck, after something like that; all I wanted was to be alone. You need time for personal reflection after such an experience, and so as we made the long walk back up to the bus, I used that time to think to myself and reflect on what I had just seen. That sort of thing takes time to process, but looking back, I am so very glad that we had that opportunity. It showed me that even though someone can visit this memorial multiple times, it still has the same effect on them. Siggy, was a very great guide through this and provided insight I will never forget. So through the multiple museum visits, and palace visits, this is just one of many reminders of how Austria distinguishes itself from Australia, and from any other country for that matter. What an exhilarating first week, and I’m very excited for the weeks to come!
