The current reactions show that a great many “relatives” evidently do not “appreciate” a spectacle being staged with the supposed ashes of their forebears. On the contrary, they experience the installation as hurtful and irreverent.The monetisation of the “ashes” in so-called “oath cubes”, which can be purchased through the website of the Zentrum für Politische Schönheit (ZPS), is highly disturbing and is not an appropriate way of dealing with the memory of those who were murdered. We call on the ZPS to stop this immediately.
It is right to ask what happened to the ashes of those murdered in the extermination camps, and in doing so also to address the handling of the remains of human life. The political staging of a drill core (which is said to contain human ashes), by contrast, is unacceptable. Anyone genuinely concerned with the matter should search for any remains, recover them and transfer them to a dignified place of remembrance. Possible relatives should be involved in that process. Even if the intention – “fighting the AfD” – is worthy of support, here the end does not justify the means. Least of all when the admonition to remember is to be maintained without regard for the feelings currently expressed by those directly affected. For in that way remembrance degenerates into ego-centred instrumentalisation.
By now at the latest, the ZPS should stop “hoping” for a positive, appreciative effect and instead not extend the duration, but dismantle the whole thing today – as originally planned.
