A Pause to Learn and Remember, in Berlin

It's not our experiences that form us

But the ways in which we respond to them.

(Pico Iyer)

How do we respond when the guide of our morning tour says...

                      "This is the memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe."

I'm not certain how many of our group heard her, because she was a quiet speaker, and the traffic noise was all around us since the Memorial is outside, as a park. But, I think that most heard and did not note what she said.

And....I imagine that the line which I just quoted was exactly what she was supposed to say and was the official designation of this memorial. I understand it to mean that Germany is facing head on, that Jews were murdered. It is a stark introduction but one that I appreciated.

The memorial to the victims of the Holocaust is set on several acres of prime Berlin real estate just a couple blocks from the Brandenburg Gate and the US and British embassies.

And it should be noted that in the park were memorials to the murder of Roma and the physically challenged and Gays. All these groups were targets of the killings of WWII Nazi era Germany. 

                    

The stark gray-ness of the Memorial is intentional. It is like a maze in which you can get lost and also head for the light. Symbolism abounds.

 

We reminded our students that this was not the fun place like the tower we visited the night before or even the expressive Berlin Church we had seen....this was a memorial for those who had been murdered and now are being remembered.

But, our kids understood. 

The Memorial is outside and consists of stark blocks set in a a huge area. Indeed it is a maze. Beneath the park is the center with exhibits about those Jews who were taken. In stark presentations we see postcards desperately written as the Jews were taken to their death.

Actual photos of the postcards and letters and hand-written notes.... and how they were discovered gave us a first-hand picture of desperation and displacement.

Put on the headphones. Wander through the exhibits of the restrictions first placed on Jewish communities. We then see how this evolved into a plan to murder all Jews. See the postcards and notes which desperate Jews sent to relatives. Read their writing as many hear rumors of death camps.

                                     

We also learned of typical life in numerous Jewish communities and towns and cities throughout Europe and how the lives of vital, active people were ended. Whole communities and ways of life were put to an end.

These were real people with families and houses and celebrations and grandchildren and a past and a future; the future of which was limited or extinguished.

                                  

The exhibits set forth a couple things which could not be missed. That the Jews were murdered and that the Jews had vital communities which are now nearly lost to history and that they and their way of life must be remembered.

I am not certain how one moves along in your day after such a tour. I am not certain how ones continues to write the day's Blog without disrespecting the memory of those whom we saw memorialized. 

So we all just walked towards the Brandonburg Gate...dodging traffic....dodging the Hare Krishna festival and parade, re-entering the Saturday morning life of this big German city.

                       

Perhaps the life of the city would restore our spirits and not just distract us from the memories which we must retain.

Peace,  Bob