B is for Remembrance

Posted on Wed Feb 23rd, 2022 @ 2:01am by

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Earth
Timeline: Sometime prior to reporting to the Elysium
771 words - 1.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Various cultures across the galaxy have varying beliefs about ghosts.

Aspire's people, the Anjurwans, knew ghosts to be real.

Anjurwan ghosts weren't supernatural creatures composed of ectoplasm. But when one Anjurwan "talked" to another, you could always hear the echo of one or more ancestors in their conversations. They might be faint echoes, but if you listened carefully, you could hear them.

As Aspire walked on the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, she felt as if she were surrounded by hundreds of echoes, all wanting to be heard and remembered.

It was a late March morning, with the grey skies whispering that Spring was just a lie parents tell their children to keep them quiet. Aspire was dressed warmly enough, but the cold still somehow was able to penetrate her layers of clothing. The young nurse had only one possession on her, a simple leather book with an upside down 'B' on its cover. Aspire clutched the book to her chest as if it could somehow ward off evil spirits.

The book contained eight poems, written by eight different poets: Martin Niemöller, Czesław Miłosz, Paul Celan, Elie Wiesel, Anthony Hecht, Geoffrey Hill, Ruth Fainlight and Primo Levi. Aspire had never heard of these poets before she had received the book as a gift. But she planned to learn as much as possible about each of them now.

The upside down 'B' corresponded with the upside down 'B' in the words above the gate. Translated into Standard, the words above the entrance read: "Work Makes You Free." When their captors told them to make the sign above the gate, the prisoners made the B upside down to subversively point out the lie of those words.

When Aspire first arrived on Earth, she was amazed at the diversity of humans, of the varying ethnic groups. She had read about it, of course, and had met different ethnic groups of humans. But to come to Earth and experience the diversity on humanity's homeworld was an entirely new experience. To Aspire, Earth was the very embodiment of the Vulcan philosophy of IDIC: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinatiosn. Aspire fell in love with every culture on Earth, and especially their foods.

Then Aspire encountered the history of humanity. This place where she was about to enter had a presence that was overwhelming. It was in Earth's Second Global War, in places like this, that one of the warring factions, Nazi Germany, killed six million people, all because they were members of one particular ethnic group.

In the years, the decades, and even the centuries to come, the memory of Auschwitz would dim. Pontiffs would invoke the name solely to castigate their ideological opponents. Others would argue that the camp was a simply a front for a hoax and/or conspiracy. A few would even say that the events that happened at the preserved camp were no different than what had happened before in history.

More than a century ago, a noted historian and Starfleet Academy Instructor, John Gill, had introduced Nazism to a humanoid species named the Ekosians. Without the intervention of the legendary James T. Kirk, John Gill's cultural contamination would have resulted in the genocide of another humanoid species, the Zeons.

Aspire wondered if John Gill had been dismissive of the evils of Nazism because he came from an ethnic group that had not had to suffer universally for its identity.

It was amazing to Aspire that this place had survived Earth's Third Global War and all the other conflicts that occurred from the end of the Second Global War to Earth's eventual unification. But maybe there was a destiny to places like this that guaranteed their survival. Their memory may fade from time to time, but they always resurged. Places like this were a touchstone for all if humanity, to remind them that when the likes of Colonel Green and Governor Kodos emerged, that humanity had to remind themselves that they could be better than these base individuals.

Aspire was brought out of her grandiose thoughts by a tap on her shoulders.

"Miss Golightly?" a young woman with light olive skin, long dark hair and wearing a plain gray dress asked her.

"Yes, sorry, I'm Miss Golightly," Aspire answer, blushing. "I was lost thinking."

The other woman nodded. Her face remained solemn, but Aspire saw kindness in the other woman's heart and in her eyes. "Quite all right. This place has that effect. I'm Ruth Ambrosewicz. I'm here to be your guide. If you will follow me?"

Aspire nodded and followed, as the echoes prepared to share their history.