Berlin 2

Holocaust Memorial

From there we went to the Holocaust Memorial.  It is a series of stone columns of various sizes.  It take up a city block.  You can wander among them.  All these are blank… to represent all the nameless victims.  Underneath this is a museum dedicated to the Jewish victims… some of the columns actually go down into the museum (forming the ceiling) and once inside they contain names.  

In a separate area of town we saw another project called the stumbling stones where brass plaques bearing the names and when they were murdered.  The artist who conceived of this project began in Berlin and now there are more than 60,000 of the stones around Europe. 

stumbling stones

We went to Museum Island, an actual island in the Spree River.  Major renovations are underway at the Pergamon and New Museums, and there are discussions about whether some of the collections in these museums should be returned to their countries of origin.  Like the bust of Nefertiti which Egypt would like back.

The New Museum

The island is home to the Berlin Dom, the cathedral.  Its dome was punctured by an Allied bomb, and the East Germans didn’t repair it after the war.  It, and some additional churches, were finally repaired after unification. 

We crossed back over the Spree... here's a shot of one of the tour boats in front of the royal armory which is now the historical museum.

In a square adjacent to the Opera House and across from Humbolt University we saw the site of one of the largest book burnings as the Nazis were coming to power.  Now they have an “empty library,” a hole in the ground where you can see empty shelves… enough shelves to hold all the books that were burned.

through the plexi-glass you can see the shelves

One of the squares nearby had a French church, so the Germans built a duplicate church on the other side with a concert hall between them.  Some kids were playing near the fountain, creating large bubbles.  I caught one near the dome. 

We drove past Checkpoint Charlie, the one point where visitors could cross the wall.  

Today all that remains are replica signs and a sentry box – and some people dressed in uniforms willing to pose for pictures. 

Checkpoint Charlie

Our final stop was at the longest section of the wall that remains.  This was near the former SS headquarters which was destroyed by the Americans after the war.  They have made a museum that details some of the terrors inflicted by the Gestapo and the SS. 

The Wall, alongside ruins of the SS Headquarters (beneath the plexi-glass)