history

A Historical Walk in Berlin

As a Jewish woman, it was very important to me to visit some of the historical sites in Berlin. Still, I couldn’t quite process the acts of barbarity that took place there, even when I was there; it was too much to digest cognitively. I did feel the presence of souls-taken-too soon as I rode from Czechia into Germany, however. It was a powerful experience.

I decided to go on an Airbnb walking tour with Jack, a mightily knowledgable man from London. He was well-versed in German history and shared notable stories.

Here are some places I visited:

Bode Museum on Museum Island
The Alte Nationalgalerie
Berlin Cathedral
Bebelplatz, where a Nazi book-burning ceremony took place. A line from Heinrich Hein’s play, Almansor, is engraved on a plaque in the square; it translates in English to “That was only a prelude; where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people”.
Brandenburger Tor is considered both a symbol of Europe’s volatile history, and also European unity and peace.
Reichstag: the beginning of the end, where Hitler’s enabling act was passed. This began the removal of rights.
Tiergarten
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
As you start literally going down hill, the the pillars grow and you begin to feel lost and suffocated. There are many interpretations of this installation, including forced segregation, isolation, loss of identity, and the rise and fall of the Third Reich.
Designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold, the slabs are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent an “ordered system” that has lost touch with human reason.
This site is where Hitler’s bunker and office were located. It is now apartments and a children’s playground. So creepy.
This used to be the Nazi Air Force location.
Berlin Wall
SS guard site
Anhalter Bahnhof was a railway terminus. It functioned as a Holocaust deportation station, and from 1942-1945, around 9600 elderly jews were transported from Berlin to their deaths in the ghettos and extermination camps in Eastern Europe.
All that remains of Anhalter Bahnhof today

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