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Accessed on 12/01/2008 FindArticles > Sunday Mirror > Mar 16, 2008 > Article > Print friendly
Genocide, the stench of death and eating lunch in a gas chamber..
LISA O'CONNORYOU could forgive Gordon Hogan for feeling depressed about going to work. After all, the Monday morning blues affect the best of us sometimes.
But the rest of us don't have to spend four hours every day in a concentration camp, walking through a gas chamber.
For Gordon's work day takes him by train from Munich to the site where the holocaust began.
He travels along the same railway line which transported hundreds of thousands of prisoners during the Second World War, and gets off the train at the stop which marked the end of freedom for Jews, gypsies, priests and homosexuals.
He walks beneath the infamous entrance sign, still cruelly marked "Arbeit macht frei", which means "Work makes you free".
Then he gathers tourists from all over the world around him, and guides them through the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.
For Gordon, who is a self-confessed history junkie, has one of the least desirable jobs in the world.
He is one of the leading tour guides at the Nazi death camp of Dachau. But the irony is, he loves his work!
Showing people around a former torture enclosure in which more than 25,000 people perished might not be everyone's ideal career choice.
But for Tipperary man Gordon Hogan it simply doesn't get any better.
Gordon, 29, who lives in Munich, knows everything there is to know about the dark history of the horrific Dachau concentration camp.
So who better to show the camp to the huge number of visitors who come to see it annually than the Templemore artist?
The Nazi death camp held 200,000 prisoners between 1933 and its liberation by American soldiers in April 1945.
But while many people find visiting a site where such horrors took place to be depressing, Gordon says they are inspirational.
"Dachau was the first of 2,000 concentration camps. So working here is a heavy job. sometimes I have to take four or five days off, the work is so intense. I'm going to keep doing it until my passion for it runs out."
But even an eternally optimistic person like Gordon is forced to admit that his job can take its toll.
"It probably takes a certain type of personality to do this job," he admits.
"But I'm not an average Joe. My own personal journey is to face my fears.
But when you walk through a gas chamber every day, it can get very intense.
"I take people on three to four hour tours of Dachau. But there is so much I could say about the place, I could do a three day tour if necessary."
Gordon first moved to Germany nine years ago in order to study at the prestigious art school in Munich.
Having began his studies at Limerick School of Art and Design, he got the opportunity to spend three months abroad at a foreign university.
He always was fascinated by Germany, so he chose to study in Munich. Before his three months were up, he had fallen in love with the city, and persuaded a professor to let him finish his studies at the prestigious German art school.
"I always had an interest in Germany, so when I had the chance to take a three-month Erasmus course abroad, I picked Munich," he said.
"I spent six months working at odd jobs, and the Irish community here looked after me. I first started working in that community, serving beer in Irish bars to Germans."
But his interest in history and politics led him to the unlikely job of becoming a Dachau tour guide.
"I suppose the history of the Third Reich was always an interest or a hobby for me," he explains.
"I had to do a three month course at Dachau before they'd let me be a tour guide because it is such a sensitive subject," he says. "They don't want any old person coming here to take the mickey.
"After that, I became a fully qualified guide to the camp. So I set up my own little business with the permission of Dachau, and now I take people around the camp, talking about the politics and history of the place.
He added: "They have their own educational centre at Dachau and I do work for them too. It pays the rent and fills the belly, but it is really inspirational for me too, and inspires my art."
And the bilingual Irishman is so popular at his job that even Germans ask him to show them around this dark heart of their nation's history. "Most of the people I show around Dachau are tourists," he says.
"Germans tend to visit while they are still at school. But I've been living here for nine years and I do speak fluent German, so I do take Germans to Dachau too.
"Some people like the fact that they can ask me controversial questions that they mightn't feel comfortable asking a German guide. Germans still can feel guilty about what happened 70 years ago.
"But I explain the history so that we all share the guilt. What happened at Dachau goes on in different ways around the world today. It's a positive place now, where people leave feeling more informed about the world."
Gordon's tours are so moving that people who he has shown around the death camp often remain in touch with him afterwards, writing and emailing him.
"People often contact me after their holidays are over. They write to me to tell me things about their lives or world politics. The experience of visiting Dachau really moves them."
Gordon loves his gloomy day job but still harbours ambitions to become a successful artist. He graduated from art college two years ago and has since exhibited his video and photographic work, partly influenced by Dachau, in Germany.
But his ambition is to bring his art back home to Ireland, and he hopes that an Irish gallery will invite him to exhibit his photography and video installations in his native land.
"My last exhibition was before Christmas and my work focused on Dachau and was inspired by the place. I spent half of last year going to Dachau daily," he says. "I love history and politics, and they influence my work. But it's still very accessible for people.
"I do miss home sometimes," he admits. "I read Irish newspapers and listen to Irish radio on the internet. Today, I had an Irish couple on my tour of Dachau. Being Irish, they were surprised to have an Irish tour guide and I was very happy to have them on the tour.
"I'm living the artist's life, but I am so fulfilled. My aim is to be a successful artist, and I'd love to take my work home to show the people of Ireland either next year or the year after. In fact, I'm planning to bring my work home either next year or the year after. I'm just waiting for a gallery to invite me!"
Gordon's art work, which features images of Dachau's watch towers and pictures of little children with Hitlerstyle toothbrush moustaches could be considered controversial.
But he believes that his work is as optimistic and positive as the former death camp which partly inspired the images he creates.
"People are really moved by visiting Dachau," he insists. "These days, it is a life camp not a death camp. People respond to the information I give them, and it often changes their lives. They come out realising the importance of celebrating life."
Copyright 2008 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
3 comments:
Good evening
Can I link to this post please?
I am very suprised to read your high praise of Gordon hogan as when I went on a tour with him he was completely biased and he made up his own facts about Ireland having an anti-Jewish constitution which I was appauled to here as I know Ireland doesn't.
He seemed like a person who had the same amount of knowledge about Dachau as the next person and used this knowledge to scam people of their money. I am not only one who sees this and his facts about the gas chambers were entirely wrong
Gordon talks slickly, but his history is erroneous. His discussion about the gas chambers at Dachau were basically made-up. He claims people were gassed there when no historian claims they were. There is no evidence to suggest they were. He claims that he now realizes these gas chambers were used to gas people even though no historian agrees. I would be very wary of him if you intend to use him.
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