Month: July 2019

When I first showed up to the concentration camp, I  thought that it was just going to be a small broken down area with a few building to walk through. But when I walked through the entrance I was instantly overcome with how enormous and how preserved  the whole camp was. There were so many barracks where the Jews were kept and in these barracks there where so many relics from the inmates that stayed there. I felt like I could feel the death and pain that the inmates experienced when staying there.

1. The most moving thing I witnessed was the execution pit where the Germans would crowd live Jews into and either shoot them or torture them before killing them. When I walked through this pit and would look up at the ledge where the Germans would stand with guns executing people I could feel the terror that the Jews must’ve felt while being in the pit.

This was a sobering experience for me. As someone whose has learned a lot about the events of World World Two, it’s sobering going to a place where the events occurred that we learned about so much in school. While Sachasenhausen isn’t as known as the larger concentration camps, a lot of horrific things still occurred there.

Visiting other historical sites of World War Two, this place has a complete different feeling compared to the rest. Visiting other places I was reflective, but most people knew what they were going into. In the concentration camp, the overwhelming feeling of the deaths of innocent people was their. At someone points while going around the camp. You could feel the death on your shoulders.

I kept on wondering to myself what occurred in someone mind to normalize this situation. The dehumanization, attacking, killing of innocent people. How could a guard wake up in morning and be able to keep doing this day after day?

Before coming to Berlin, I was terrified; not having a ton of international travel experience, I was not sure what exactly to expect. Was I going to be able to find my way? Would I be able to speak to people? How the heck was I going to survive?

The first day, I had to keep reminding myself that I was on the other side of the world. Continue reading “Initial Reflections”

This past weekend we went to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp for a day. We got to walk around the camp and read/listen to a lot of the stories from the victims held there. It was completely horrific and astonishing that an event this demonic could take place in the world. Continue reading “Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp”

The first week here in Germany has flown by so fast. The week is quite repetitive, but the weekends are jam packed with group activities. Every day, we wake up, eat breakfast, and then head to the bus station for the activity of the day. On the bus, we usually get some really weird, and probably deserved, looks from the locals. Something that I was not expecting to encounter was how the people here immediately start speaking English to us, or how the people dress quite nice rather than my usual t-shirt and shorts look. Some of the many great things Germany has to offer is that the Redbull is substantially cheaper, chocolate is $0.59, and it is completely normal for people to have a beer with every meal. Some perks I guess you could say.  Continue reading “A Week Into Germany”