Berlin: Sachsenhausen. Gedenkstatte.

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Sachsenhausen is Berlin's concentration camp that was the model camp that set the standard for those to follow (The famous sign over Auschwitz read "Arbeit macht frei" which means "Work liberates", is a copy of the one in Sachenhausen).

The camp was used primarily for political prisoners of the Nazi Regime and, after the the end of the Second world war as a soviet secret service (not only the service was secret but also the camp).

I have decided to go there on a group tour. Don't know why. Maybe I was too lazy to plan, maybe I was too scared (it was my first time), Maybe I just didn't want to be alone.


Visiting the camp, in this freezing weather, taking the walk from the train station through the village to the camp, looking at the streets, houses, daily routines, listening to quite, tranquil countryside, thinking of all of those people marching in their striped clothing, hungry, scared, unsecured worried and all those feelings and thoughts we can all try and imagine but not really understand, they were not protected and covered, surrounded by vacationing tourists like me, made me keep a bit to myself, couldn't make the tourist's smalltalk “where are you going, where have you been” chats, I was cold, I felt weak, I was stressed, I was sad, I kept thinking of the guy at the train station ticket office, telling me: “you are going to a concentration camp? But you are on vacation, it's not fun. When I am on vacation I don't want to do anything that would 'put down my mood'” I have tried to explain him my way of thinking: that history and learning from it are the key to improving ourselves, our reality and life. There was no time or openness for discussion. And I couldn't stop thinking, for days, is he one of those type of people who ignore or avoid reality and therefor lets those atrocities all over the world happen? Where do you draw the line and start acting against it?When does it stop being “security needs” and becomes more than that? Well, I'll probably won't be the one finding an answer to this disturbing - all concerning question.

Having this tour with non Israelis and non Jewish people around me had shown me how the worlds treats the holocaust and the second world war. For most Israelis, the second world war IS the Holocaust. We don't think of the WORLD war, we don't think of all the others who were murdered for being different, we don't know. We don't study it or (please try to remember that studying wasn't something I was bothered with when I went to school) we don't study it enough. As I remember it we study Jewish people's history - and the Holocaust is a central part of it - and we study general world history, the second world war being a tiny part of it. So - going back to the “I'm in a complete international environment” showed me how the world studies it, and how much the world knows of it. I guess in every country it's been taught in a different way. They study more about the WORLD war. They also know quite a lot about the holocaust, I've asked. They holocaust is studied a lot more than other genocides, more recent.


Continuing my “I'm on an ex-war zone mode and freezing cold” I have decided to get deeper into the mood and dedicate this visit to Berlin and the second world war, the cold war, eastern Berlin, as much as I can get into those “dark days”...


so - the second thing I did was to head to jail. In Berlin, in a nice pleasant neighborhood 20 minutes from Alexanderplatz stands Gedenkstatte the Stazi prison. German speaking people get to hear the tour there from ex-prisoners. It's personal stories, it's fascinating. I don't speak German. My guide was a very young historian, a girl who speaks very good English BUT - - - she wasn't (couldn't?) getting us into the atmosphere. She did had lots of personal stories she heard from ex prisoners, but her way of speaking and explaining, her misuse of the words “democratic” and “weird” had damaged my ability to get really into the story: she was talking about the differences in periods - before and during the cold war, mentioning that the first period was more into physical torture and how afterwords it became more “democratic”, more of a psychological pressure. Well... I think she wanted to say more humanitarian. As far as I know, jail can't be democratic...

the word “weird” just made it feel like it was “story telling” for kids and not passing it as recent history.


My last guided tour was a tour at the underground bunkers, and nuclear war shelters. It was fascinating to see the planning of actions and shelters in case of a nuclear bomb. It was also fascinating to find out that the Germans, whom are well known for planning and organizing, didn't think of what to do “AFTER” the nuclear bomb. When they run out of fresh air, water and food, up to 2 weeks after the bomb's dropped...


For some people Berlin is party time, bars, nightlife etc.... for me Berlin was fascinating, in the process of changing, with a dark history. It might be connected to the weather that just wasn't great enough to wander the streets, to say the least, so I've decided to make sure I will finish all the serious things in this visit, planning my next one to be ONLY FUN!!!!


As cold as it gets:


* had only 4 beers in 10 days. Had 30 gluewine at least.
* Saw a “Mustang” '68 completely renovated. Amazing. Pure art. Master piece. and didn't bother taking a photo of it. Was just too cold to get the camera out (girls, it's a car, I guess you can never understand..)
* whenever I saw a bus/tram/underground passing by I was on it. Didn't care where it's heading. Of course, it got me to some unexpected and unknown to tourists places but - lucky me I got the system at a very young age: if you are taking a bus to it's last stop, wait a little, it usually goes back.. and they all did. Keeping myself warm became fun....

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Comments

[Jay]

excellent post
I think I know what you mean about not thinking of "the WORLD war." My office was involved with the families of the four Americans, two Israeli-Americans, and two Israelis killed in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, so in my head, Mumbai = Chabad House. A classmate of mine from India had to gently point out to me that in fact 130+ Indians died there too. I'm a girl and I wish you'd taken a picture of the car!