Month: July 2019

Visiting Sachsenhausen was unexpectedly difficult. I have known of many stories and the general history of the concentration camps and knew it would be difficult but seeing the actual locations and listening to the audio tour really hit deep. The hardest part was hearing about how proud the engineers behind the camp were of their design and creation. As someone studying engineering it was painful to hear of people with the same career doing something so inhumane. The head designer was so proud of the efficiency of his equilateral triangle camp. The rain and thunder at Sachsenhausen felt quite fitting to the dark mood of the camp.

I was surprised to learn that the concentration camp did not fully close after WWII as the Russians turned the camp to imprison the previous Nazi captors. There were other surprising things, most horrible but not all. I was happy to hear an account of the band that played in the morgue  and how much joy it brought to the captives there.

In relation to the vileness of Sachsenhausen, I preferred the somber and reflective nature of the Holocaust museum. I felt less powerless as the museum encouraged me to remember and reflect on the horribleness so that it will never happen again. It was still unbelievably hard to read all the testimonials, history, and tales of family’s torn apart and slaughtered.

Even writing this post a week later is hard. I feel like I cannot properly describe the sense of devastation and cruelty visible at the museums. I don’t believe I will ever forget some of the instruments and methods I saw and learned about there. Despite the hardness of all I saw and learned, I am glad I learned it and hope to stay mindful of it throughout my future.

The most interesting part, I feel, of Wittenberg is Martin Luther’s house. This house seemed to make the processes and events of the reformation come alive. This said, a part that came alive to me that I feel is important to mention was just how flawed Martin Luther was. Thing is, people like him are portrayed as saints fighting for noble causes. However, many of these people also have serious flaws and faults that history fails—or simply forgets– to mention. For example, Martin Luther “published four anti-Jewish tracts” in which he “advocated, among other things, that recalcitrant Jews should be expelled from the country and their synagogues burned.”

So while we continuously remember and celebrate our “heroes”, we must remember that – like everybody else—they were flawed

What was most disturbing to me about Sachsenhausen and The Holocaust Memorial was not the sheer extent of the human depravity that made the systematic murder of so many people possible. It was not the fact that within a few years, about six million people were killed. It was not the glee with which Nazi officials carried out their atrocities and indifference with which some other Germans watched . What disturbed me most is how closely the rhetoric in the years preceding the official beginning of systematic murder so closely resembles the rhetoric I see in the world today.

This time, “Jewry equals crime” has been substituted by “Immigrants equals crime,” and anti-Jewish rumblings have been replaced by anti -Semitic carnival floats in Belgium and white supremacist parades in the United States.

I can only hope for the best: that what happened then will not happen again. However, it would be foolish of me to say it could never happen again.

 

The first thing that strikes me about Germany, or Berlin rather, is how it is- simultaneously- very multicultural and very German it is.  It seems like someone in Heaven decided to mix New York and Grand Rapids together, with a combination of people from a million different places, and “plain” Germans. Also, there’s a very liberal atmosphere that seems to have a healthy dose of laissez-faire and a mind-your-own business attitude that guarantees that people on buses and on trains feel isolated.  Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I’ll leave it to you who reads this.

When I flew out from America, I expected a vibrant city with history and diversity, and that is what I found. What I did not expect, however, was the sheer paradox of isolation and interconnectedness in the city.

I could get used to this.

 

Bremen was, by far, one of the most interesting cities I’ve ever seen. It’s an eclectic mix of both modern and old. With H&M shops right next to decades- old buildings and Statues depicting decades old poems next to sausage stands with flashing neon lights. It’s this quality, I think, that makes Bremen special. Rather than tear down the old to make space for the new, or rather than building the new ways off from  the old, they’re intertwined, they stand together, and in some cases, they’re within each other, and I think that’s admirable.

Back in Middle School, the Holocaust was my first exposure to the worst of humanity. From an early age, it’s easy to view the world as morally black and white with most entertainment and courses emphasizing the good. Upon truly learning about the holocaust really changed my outlook on the true extent humanity can go to sustain a flawed ideology.

Continue reading “Sachsenhausen & Holocaust Museum”

Visiting the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp and the Holocaust museum were eye-opening experiences to me. I thought I knew the sorrowful history of WWII and the persecution on Jews, but it was worse than I thought.
Continue reading “Reflection on Sachsenhausen and the Holocaust Memorial”

The visits to the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp as well as the holocaust museum were grim reminders of what humanity can be like at its worst. One of the things that stuck out to me was the extent and the lengths gone to strip away the humanity and individuality of everyone victimized.

Continue reading “Holocaust Memorials”

This past weekend our group visited both the concentration camp Sachsenhausen and the memorial/museum for the murdered Jews.

Continue reading “Reflection on WW2 memorials”

Visiting Sachsenhausen and the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin were experiences that brought into context the terrors experienced in WWII by the Jewish people living in Germany, that suffered so greatly under their systematic targeting and the Holocaust. Understanding how Germany has responded to the Holocaust helps us realise that dialogue and education are key to helping reconcile the events of the past and prevent history from repeating itself. 

Continue reading “Q3 Reflections on Sachsenhausen and the Holocaust Memorial”