A museum that doesn't tell you about history, but makes you feel history

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We started the day with a tour of the Jewish Museum. For those of you who know me, you know I wouldn’t visit Berlin without visiting this museum. It was not at all what I expected. I expected exhibits that showed what happened to the Jews, instead I found a building that evocated the feelings of what happened to the Jews. Walking through the building the architecture made you feel the unsettled reality of Jews who were fortunate enough to emigrate, the emptiness of the Jews who were murdered and the uncertain reality of the future of Jews who survived. There was virtually no signage or displays that either explained or showed what happened, rather the building itself enabled you to feel what had happened. For example, there was a small outside area with 49 tall rectangular columns and when you walked between them the ground was uneven and you felt as if you were getting sea-sick and lost. This was to help you feel like the lucky few who escaped must have felt emigrating from their homes. I watched a TED talk by the architect, Daniel Libeskind, and was amazed to see all the other incredibly creative building he is responsible for including the New World Trade Center.

There was also a large exhibit on Jerusalem, which was interesting, but much more what you expect to find in a museum. This is Europe, so the violence committed by the Israelis during the 1948 war of Independence was dramatically display as it should be, but the violence perpetrated by Arabs in the 1930’s was ignored. Also, there was no mention of the fact that the Mufti of Jerusalem was aligned with Hitler; his great hope was that the Muslims would be able to kill all the Jews in the Middle East as the Germans had done in Europe. I’m going to drop a note to them about this.

We easily found the BiteMojo location for lunch which was banXX sandwiches. Jack is great fan of these sandwiches and rated them at good, but not as good as the place in Brooklyn near Josh. After lunch Jack headed back to the apartment. He has a cold and needed a nap. We had a tour of the Boros collection scheduled for 4:30, so I had time for one other stop which ended up being the German History Museum. I found that the history of Germany before the 19^th Century was not of great interest and much of what was on display from the 20^th Century told a story that we had learned about with our guide John Owen the day before. Again, I took exception to one part of the exhibit. In the case where they displayed the striped uniform that prisoners in the concentration camps wore, the outfit looked like it had just been purchased at the Gap…. new, clean and pressed. I doubt any inmates of any camps work outfits that looked like this, rather their clothes would be filthy and ragged. I mentioned this to the staff member of the information counter. He gave me the name of the director of education and when I finish this day’s report I’m going to write to him. I can always edit this if I hear back from him.

The Boros Collection is housed in what was built in 1942 or 43 as an above ground bunker. I had never heard of an above ground bunker, but the guide explained that it was as safe as an underground bunker because vibrations from a bomb could dissipate into the air rather than being trapped by solid ground. The building was interesting, with walls 1.8 meters thick and a roof 3 meters thick made from reinforced concrete. I enjoyed seeing the collection because there was a guide explaining the pieces to me, I would not have enjoyed it without a guide. It was conceptual art so if you didn’t know what the artist was trying to communicate it would be hard to interpret and appreciate the work. For example, one room had several egg cartons cast in bronze and covered with gold leaf. There were two eggs, one brown and one white. OK???? Once you know that the artist is Chinese and was referring to the “One Child” policy, you start to see the story being told in the piece. It reflects a world in which the first child is precious and the second is expensive because the Chinese government imposes taxes on families that have more than one child.

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Photos

walking between the pillars
the unevenness made you nauseous