This morning we toured Berlin seeing so many famouis sites including the Reichstag, seat of government, & the Brandenberg Gate, symbol of Berlin. We walked through the official Berlin Holocaust Memorial which had been contoversial since it was buiilt in Dec. 2004. Marv & I had seen it when we were in Berlin in 2008, & I had the same disappointing reactiion this time--it leaves me cold & emotionless. It is a series of blocks of concrete of all sizes that covers a city block in central Berlin so citizlens see it as theywalkj & drifce by so it is a constant reminder. The architect deliberately left no description, no words, wanting people to come to their own conclusions & feelings, I still cannot believe that this is the design that won out of the many submitted.
We drove by the site of Hitler's Bunker where he cowardly committed suiicide when he knew Germany's defeat & his "1,000-year Reich" was nearing the end. The bunker was destroyed after the war so it would not become a Neo-Nazi Shrine.
We toured the House of the Wannsee Conference, a former industrialist's villa where on Jan. 20, 1942, 15 high-ranking members of SS met. In a 90-minute meeting these men, nine of whom had Ph.D.'s, confirmed the plan to murder all European Jews. Even though I have studied the Holocaust for several years & know & teach how it was methodically carried out, i still cannot believe it could have happened. Whenever I travel to Holocaust camps & other sites, my bewiderment grows.
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We saw the remnants of the Berlin Wall, erected in 1961 in order for the Soviets to keep the East Berliners from moving to West Berlin; it was torn down in 1989. I saw the wall in 1969 & vividly remember after going on a bus tour to East Berlin, the bus going through 'Check Point Charlie" & being stopped when returning to West Berlin. I watched officers with mirrors on long carts putting the carts under the bus to make sure no one had tried to escape East Berlin by holding on under the bus.
"Check Point Charlie" still exists as a tourist attraction manned by actors wearing uniforms pose for photos.
In the afternoon we went to Ravensbruck, the only concentration camp built exculsively for women Between 1939 and 1945, 132,000 women were imprisoned along with 20,000 men. Jews & Gypsies came from over 40 countries. Tens of thousands were murdered or died from hungar, illness or medical experimentation. Hauntiing statues memorialize the victims & most disturbing to me was seeing the small town of Furstenberg right across the lake in front of the camp. There can be no doubt that villagers knew of the camp's existence & could see the smoke.
