A Wandering Jew in Berlin

Walking along the East Side Gallery - a remaining part of the Wall

With tens of thousands of Jews living in Berlin now, I wonder to myself a little bit, "why?". While I wonder that, I think others may wonder why Jews even want to visit the city. However, Berlin is, on the surface at least, an extremely multicultural city now with people of all different sorts of colours and backgrounds roaming around. On the one hand, it's hard to imagine the horrors of 20th century, but on the other hand, walking through Berlin, it's hard to forget them too.

One of my main purposes of visiting the city was to learn a bit about Germany and Berlin in particular. Both from the point of view of National Socialism leading up to the war, as well as in terms of, how shall I put it, capitalism and communism following the war. Every time I think about what happened there in the 1930s I feel disgusted at what human beings are capable of. It makes me sick to the bone. Worse so, it disgusts me what happened after the war when the so called 'victors' took over and were horrible in their own right. The Soviets creating a Nazi State version 2. And the Western Allies with their half hearted attempt at justice.

The Free Berlin Walking Tour provided a wealth of background information on the city, especially from the 1930s and the ensuing half a century. One of the stops was the Berlin Holocaust Memorial. A rather unusual memorial with 2,711 rectangular concrete slabs laid out in a grid pattern. Each with the same footprint but different volume. There is apparently no significance to the number of blocks, and the designer of the memorial did not provide an explanation as to the meaning of the concrete slabs. He wanted each visitor to reach his or her own conclusion. For some reason, this memorial did not strike me as one of the most powerful ones I have seen, but it did cause me to stop and think, and therein I think is the purpose. It is in a prime position in Berlin. Shouting distance of the Brandenburg gates, close to the Reichstag, and right next to where the Wall used to run. For me, the most powerful symbolism is that it it clearly shows the will of the Germans to make sure they never forget what their forefathers did.

This was indeed a recurring theme. It is very easy to try and forget one's mistakes. Or to believe that one was right, even when proven wrong. On a country level, most countries aren't particularly good at acknowledging mistakes and making amends. It is clear that a large proportion of Germany, very soon after the conclusion of WWII, acknowledged not only defeat, but that what had happened was wrong. Many things took many years to be dealt with. Many things are still not dealt with. And many things were simply let be (hence my reference earlier on to West Germany's version of justice by leaving so many Nazi criminals to essentially live in peace and make the past, 'history'). However, many things are dealt with, and dealt with in such a way that the reminders are their every day to help ensure the right things happen going forward. Putting such a significant memorial to the murdered Jews in such a prominent spot is a good example of this.

Main entrance to the concentration camp (between the commendant's quarters and the camp)

"Work Makes Free" - on the entrance to too
many Nazi camps

Unlike Auschwitz in Poland, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is largely destroyed, and were it not for the museums parts of it, it would be hard to imagine the horrors that went on there. One of the reasons for this is that following the war, the Soviets turned it into their own concentration camp, to hold those they didn't like. Over time, parts of it were renovated and other parts destroyed. However, the essence of the camp, what was a model camp and used as the basis for many other concentration camps afterwards, remains. Its existence dates back to 1936 and is only a short train ride from Berlin by the town of Oranienburg.

In the memorial garden of the camp

The death strip, electric fence, barbed wire, wall and dog
tie up points making the boundaries for inmates

2 reconstructed barracks in the Jewish area of the camp (previously burnt down by vandals)

Monument installed by the GDR in 1961.

The museum components of the camp are excellent and provide a chilling background to the history of the camp which was used not only to house Jews, but significant numbers of political prisoners, as well as gypsies, homosexuals, and other so called 'inferior' people. The fact that the camp borders on a quiet German town, where one can only imagine the pains the residents had to go to to try and pretend they didn't know what was happening in the crematorium which was less than 1km away from their residence, is a chilling reminder to the horrors of 70 years ago. It is times like this where one has to wonder why we as humans tend to assume the basic premise that human life on earth should continue. Why do we even want to bring children into this world where they may be the subject of such brutality, or worse still, be the subjectors of such brutality. The world isn't a pretty place and Sachsenhausen reminds us of this.

Wreaths laid by the representatives of the Israeli Defence Force in the memorial in the cremetorium.

The Jewish Museum of Berlin is an extraordinarily comprehensive museum with a specific focus on the history of Jews in Germany, and particularly Berlin. It is housed in a striking building and provides the visitor with one very clear message: How stupid were the Germans?! I took away from this museum the contributions of Jews to society, as so many Jewish museums do. Germany, an important world centre in technological innovation was a haven for resourceful Jews who contributed immensely to society. Whether it was the Jew who started AEG and was responsible for the first setup to distribute AC electricity in Germany, the financiers who kept things going in the economy when others couldn't, or the personalities that played a massive part in German pop-culture.

The Holocaust memorial void at the Jewish Museum

This was definitely a splendid museum. The focus was not really on the Holocaust, though that was covered. The focus was on the religion through the ages - how it came to Germany and how it stayed. How it was influenced by the various waves of migration, and how it influenced society. Certainly, this is one of the best Jewish museums I have ever seen.

So why are tens of thousands of Jews living in Berlin now? Perhaps it is to stick it to them. Just like all Berliners seem to be sticking it to the old-timers, showing that the Wall is simply a memory now - division is no longer part of the city. They are showing Germany and the world that nothing can make them go away. All the evil of early 20th century Germany not only contributed to the creation of the state of Israel, but showed the world that the Jews are not going anywhere because the world won't function without them.