I recently took part in an international academic conference in the historic Polish city of Krakow, and took the opportunity to visit the site of the notorious World War II-era Auschwitz concentration camp at Oswiecim, which is in a neighboring region.
Here, Nazi Germany massacred 1 million people, including Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, gypsies and homosexuals. In 1979, UNESCO classified the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp complex as a world heritage site, and it is perhaps the most popular “dark tourism” site in Eastern Europe.
NAZI BASE
When the conference was over, I traveled to Nuremberg, an important historic city in southern Germany. Nuremberg was an important base for the Nazis during their rise to power, and Adolf Hitler held several mass rallies at a forum not far south of the old city.
It was also the scene of the Nuremberg Trial, at which the victorious European and US allies tried Nazis accused of war crimes after the end of World War II.
The people of Nuremberg bear the stigma of their city having been a Nazi power base, and during the latter part of the war, Nuremberg suffered heavy Allied bombing that killed 6,000 of its inhabitants and destroyed nine-tenths of the old city.
BREAKING FREE
However, in the post-war period, the people of Nuremberg have striven to emerge from the dark shadows of war.
As well as meticulously rebuilding most of the buildings of the old city brick by brick and tile by tile, they have made great efforts to promote the concept and practice of human rights.
This includes hosting a variety of human rights conferences and holding the biennial Nuremberg International Human Rights Award ceremony.
The well-known Chinese human rights advocate Wei Jingsheng (魏京生) was invited to speak at the award ceremony in 1999.
The new generation of Nurembergers have deeply reflected upon the human rights violations that took place under the Nazis and have done much to reverse them, eventually winning Nuremberg the uplifting title of a “city of human rights.”
Outside the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in the old city stand 27 8m-high white columns, plus another two that are buried in the ground with only a round plate exposed and a columnar oak tree.
On these columns are engraved the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written in German and accompanied by the same text in a different language on each column. The entire work is known as the Way of Human Rights.
SIMPLIFIED CHINESE
One of the columns carries the Chinese text of Article 22, which reads: “Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each state, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.”
While I was very pleased to see that this text was written in traditional Chinese characters, it also occurred to me that Chinese people should be able to read it, so it might be a good idea to add a version in simplified Chinese characters.
Chi Chun-chieh is a professor in the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures at National Dong Hwa University.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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