Today we saw many monuments and important sights related to the Nazi regime and even Berlin Cold War history. Many of them were places I've seen before and even showed people when they've visited me, so it was really interesting to re-visit them with leaders who have infinite knowledge about the sites and the historical context.
One of my favorite sites from today was a Jewish cemetery about 3 blocks from my school, which I had no idea existed. This site was a cemetery back before WWII, but during WWII the Germans did two things. (1) They were desperate for materials during the war, so they removed the tombstones and used the material for other purposes and b) since the city was completely obliterated when the allies bombed the city, they were also desperate for places to put dead bodies. So they re-opened these graves (the Jewish burial tradition puts the deceased 6 feet down, thus there was (technically, and sickeningly) "room for more"), and put bodies on top of them. Now it looks like a huge fern patch. However, there is ONE gravestone standing, which was erected during the 1990s. It's for Moses Mendelssohn, who was a great Jewish thinker in the 18th century. He has a long and interesting history, but what he is most known for is studying/discussing the idea of living a life of faith in a world of reason. Another way to put it; having one foot in a traditional (orthodox) world, and one foot in the modern world. It's something that people are still struggling today in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Since he is so important to Jewish history and German-Jewish history, they re-established his headstone in the corner of the cemetery where they believe he was buried.
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| The Jewish graveyard, and to the right (just right of the huge tree) you can see the sandstone colored tombstone of Moses Mendelssohn. |
Another interesting thing I learned or realized today, is that a lot of experiencing or learning about a place that you go to is not in noticing the monuments, or buildings that exist, but in noticing what does NOT exist. This is an incredibly difficult task. It's not only hard to wrap your mind around and intellectually challenging, but it also is difficult if you didn't know what was there before that was now missing. Along these lines, many memorials in Berlin (particularly those to Jews) deal with remembering and making visible this absence. Some points about this:
1. This building is the most vivid example of this. It was bombed during WWII, but only the middle section of it was completely destroyed. During reconstruction during the 1990s (remember; the GDR left all the WWII-destroyed properties completely alone during their regime, and almost everything in the East was not reconstructed until the last 15-20 years!), they decided to leave this section of the apartment missing, to make visible that these people are no longer living there; as they've been killed. Not all of them are Jewish, but it's a very important reminder of the past. This type of memorial is even more expensive than erecting a traditional 'memorial' or monument, because of the real estate value.
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| On the LEFT building you can see it clearer; you'll notice big signs or plaques on the side of the buliding. Those state who lived in the apartment before it was destroyed. |
2. This initiative, which I may have mentioned before, establishes small plaques (another kind, not to be confused with the ones I mentioned above which are much different) on the sidewalk outside of businesses or homes from which Jews were forced from their homes and deported. (see below for what they say). I find it one of the best memorials in the world. I have seen the plaques in Berlin, Bavaria, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Denmark. It's a really amazing thing to just be walking down the street with your friends eating some gelato, and see a plaque, and pause to remember the severity and gravity of what happened there not even a century ago. It's really powerful, and is a great everyday reminder for everyone. Here's just one example of this, and this is actually the largest set of them I've ever seen (usually it's just 1-3 plaques in front of a building).
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| This was in Schoneberg, the "Jewish neighborhood" where 16,000 Jews lived before WWII. |
Here lived
Ursula Salinger
Born [maiden name] Salinger
Year born. 1919
Deported 1942
Riga
Died
For reference, Riga (the capital of Latvia) was the site of mass executions by the Einsatzgruppen. The Einsatzgruppen is a group of German officers (often formerly-normal police officers who were forced into the job) who moved from town to town each day and would dig trenches and systematically shoot the individuals into what became mass graves - this killed an estimated 1.1 million Jews during the Holocaust. The biggest example is in Babi Yar, which is right outside of Kiev in the Ukraine, where an estimated 33,771 individuals were murdered in a two-day masacre. Unimaginable.
I know this is all really really emotionally difficult material to learn about. Trust me. I've taken classes on it, read many books on it, etc., so I definitely know. But I sincerely hope from the absolute bottom of my heart that those of you reading this will nonetheless continue to come back and learn, feel, and interpret these things yourselves. As one of the daughters of survivors (who is helping lead this trip) talked with us tonight, she thanked those of us whose history this is not, for coming on this trip, desiring to understand, and desiring to pass down the education on the topic. She mentioned that as a descendent it IS her story, but for some of us like myself it is not, and that's touching for her to see. I couldn't have thought of a more appropriate response, but one student said "It wasn't my story, but it very easily could have been".
And that is why I find this so very important to learn about and experience.
Thank you so much for reading and goodnight!
great blog, keep it up!
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