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Old 03-30-2012, 04:58 PM
rocketmantan rocketmantan is offline
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Opinions on a Gaswagen kit?

Back in January, I had plans to release a gaswagen kit to more or less coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference. I had planned to design the model in the best taste with a subject as touchy as the holocaust, and my intent was to educate people on the horror of that era, not to cover it up under memorials and tears, let alone to celebrate such an atrocity.

My best friend, however, convinced me to not go through with the design, as he thought it was tasteless. I definitely see where he's coming from, and going through with the model would have been a very tight balancing act between tasteless and respectfully factual.

I would like to clarify - for those that are ignorant of the whole concept of model-making - that my kits are not meant to be toys or decorative items. They are nothing more than models, representations of various subjects that can be built as people please. The release of such a model would not be a political, racist, or even personal statement. Designers, no matter what they do, are not artists in the traditional sense. There is almost no room for personal artistic expression; that's left to the "consumer". If I release this model, the only implications that would come with it would be something along the lines of "the Holocaust was a real event that happened on this Planet Earth. It was terrible, and remembering it solely through memorials and vigils will do nothing to mask the reality of the crime."

So, I've tl;dr'd you guys long enough; what's your opinion on this? Would a gaswagen model be tasteless, or, if done right, a serious-enough topic?
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Old 03-30-2012, 05:55 PM
Zathros Zathros is offline
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Paper-Replika had a "model" which depicted a woman's head sticking out of the ground, and it had an apparatus, where you would take paper, and crumple it up really small. These would be stones you launched with it's finger catapult. It started out by being a protest about women being stoned to death over things ... well, put it like this, I don't see too many instances where burying a person up to there neck and stoning them serves any person.

The link to the site turned up at a site where people were "promoting it" as something fun to do. Jules took it out of the website.

I think that your truck would end up in the hands of people who would like to see things like this return.

You do such good work, how about just doing the truck?
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Old 03-30-2012, 07:41 PM
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Uyraell Uyraell is offline
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The problem is not in the existence of a model, Brian my friend.

The problem is: that in continuing to place awareness of the Holocaust in the forefront of human consciousness, it eventually ceases to be a "Never Again" mantra, and becomes an Intructional on how to do a better job of it, next time around.

I cite Srebrenizca as an example of one lot of people, exterminating or setting out to exterminate another lot of people.
That series of events took place in comparatively modern times.

And in truth, the perpetrators were employing methods in use at the time the GasWagen was developed.
In short, the perpetrators showed every sign of "picking up where the holocaust left off", as it were.

The Holocaust can never be trivialised nor diminished. I agree with you there Brian, and I don't for one moment believe your intention with the GasWagen model was ever more than purely documentary.

However: keeping the Holocaust too much "alive" in peoples' minds will eventually result in some small group deciding to make a better job of it next time.
As happened in Srebrenizca and in Rwanda. And likely elsewhere the media didn't want to pay attention to.

That's the reason I'd have flattened Auschwitz and all the other deathcamps: demolished them all.
My thinking is: leave the gates standing, but ONLY the gates, as a memorial.
Destroy everything else of the deathcamps, in order that no-one again has the notion of how to perform mass-extermination on, with, and to, an industrial scale.

I can not decide for you what to do about the GasWagen model.
Nor, in all Truth, can any person.

However, Brian my friend, I do hope my sharing my thoughts here in this post has helped in your own assessment of the topic, which shall ever be a sensitive one.

Kind and Respectful Regards Brian my friend, Uyraell.
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Old 03-30-2012, 07:54 PM
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Answer this question;
Do I want to make this kit?
Follow your own path...
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Old 03-30-2012, 09:18 PM
Zathros Zathros is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Answer this question;
Do I want to make this kit?
Follow your own path...
That really is the bottom line. Having to ask the question almost gives the answer, on a personal level, but then that is to general of a statement to fit, as people do bounce ideas off of others.

Ultimately, I think Phil said it well, follow your own path. Be prepared to take what comes along with doing that. People know how to kill each other en masse, it doesn't take much to figure that out. It's much harder to live together, for some people. I would find it hard to kill someone, though I have beat up enough people, but they deserved it and I'd do it again, nobody should drive 25 mph in a 35 mph zone!
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Old 03-31-2012, 10:48 AM
rocketmantan rocketmantan is offline
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You guys make very good points. Uyraell, I totally understand your opinion on how Holocaust documentation should be far from an instruction manual, but I personally believe that people have the right techniques down; it's nothing but logistics now...

Thanks for the feedback, I've started drawing up the first parts of the kit, and I'll probably start the build thread later today.
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Old 03-31-2012, 12:21 PM
Maltedfalcon Maltedfalcon is offline
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If you design a model like that, Sooner or later someone would build it as a celebration, and as a designer I would want nothing to do with any possibility of that.
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Old 03-31-2012, 12:32 PM
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legion legion is offline
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Falcon, if you think about it that way, all those who build and/or design weapons of war are at fault. Like the various V1 and V2 models. And Rocketmantan already designed that stick grenade, which in real life did kill people. And that was designed to kill people, just as the gaswagen was. Personally, I'd say let him design it. It is his choice after all.

And the thing with the whole holocaust, or the whole war, people still haven't learned from it, in my eyes.
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Old 03-31-2012, 12:40 PM
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Vermin_King Vermin_King is offline
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Under the model, and on a base prominently, if you decide to do the model, state your belief and purpose for the model. You expressed it very well above. Some people would not build the base, if their views didn't mirror your own, and they can always GIMP out your words on the model itself. But it will be there.

We should never forget the atrocities of this world. It is a fine line to create a memorial without creating a shrine, if you know what I mean. I heard this week that Hitler's parents' tombstone is being removed to prevent pilgrimages to the site. It's a shame that there will always be those that are consumed with hate and have no conscience when it comes to others.

But like your message on the Berlin Wall, you could do something similar on this model. It's a tough call. Put this out of people's minds and they will soon decide it never happened, or worse, doesn't matter.

I personally would become very depressed if I had to design this model. Given personal choice, I would not. I think it can be handled appropriately, but you should know that even if it is handled appropriately, it will be abused.
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Old 03-31-2012, 12:53 PM
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Thomas Meek Thomas Meek is offline
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I am afraid I don't quite understand the problem. A quick internet image search for the term "gaswagen" yields lots of pictures of railroad cars used for carrying compressed gas, both historical and modern.
What is the connection to the Wansee Conference?
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