Germany Report (World War II tour)
This is under the cut as it is long
Germany Trip
Berlin
When we arrived in Berlin, it was very cold and somewhat late (22:30). We were staying in West Berlin, not to far from the station that everyone calls the Zoo (Bhf. Zoologischer Garten). We looked over all our research, and decided to take Tour 1: Discover Berlin given by Berlin Walks. This was the tour company recommended in the book Concentration Camps: A Traveler’s Guide to World War II Sites - an extremely handy guide during our entire tour.
We awoke Friday morning and made our way to the Zoo station to meet our tour group for our 10am departure. It was cold (-6 C) and snowing however we warmed ourselves with donuts and coffee at the nearby Dunkin Donuts. Our guide for this morning was Kirstein, an East Berliner who worked full time at a memorial at a former East German prison. - The Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial I believe.
Kirstein was an excellent guide and gave us insights about the various Third Reich and Cold War sites we visited. Among these sites we visited was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe also commonly known as the Holocaust Memorial. During our stop at the Holocaust Memorial, Kirstein reviewed several controversies that surrounded the creation of the sites; I will discuss a few here. I will also include discussion on the inside of the monument which we visited on Tuesday.
The Memorial for the Murdered Jews
First, however, a quick thought about the common nickname of the memorial. The Memorial is for the Murdered Jews and yet it is nicknamed and commonly called (according to our guide) the Holocaust Memorial. The usage of the nickname Holocaust Memorial lends one to think that it is in all encompassing memorial…more so because Holocaust tends to be utilized to refer to the entirety of the Nazi murders, although technically it can be argued this is not the proper terminology. It is an interesting angle to think about - that even the nickname brings up debate, conflict and argument about “proper” use of historical terms.
This leads to one of the first controversies was whether one monument should be built for all of the victims of Nazi Germany or if there should be separate memorials. Within Germany and the occupied territories, Jews were the primary victims - with 6 million dead. Within the concentration camp system, Jews were identified by wearing a yellow triangle.
Roma and Sinti, however, were also victims of genocide (however, the word “genocide” was not utilized in the exhibitions I seen, instead it was stated that the same laws also applied to Roma and Sinti, that these groups were persecuted and sent to ghettos and concentration camps. (It was not mentioned in what I saw but the Roma and Sinti were originally given black triangles - representing the status of anti-social - however, this was later replaced with the brown triangle - representing the Roma race.) In addition homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, and more were victims of Crimes Against Humanity)
Kirstein continued with the overview of controversies stated that the Bundetag (government) finally decided that the monument that was built where we were at would be called - and focus on - the murdered Jews, however, that a separate monument would be built for both the homosexuals and the Roma and Sinti. She informed us that the Homosexual monument was over there (with a wave of her hand) and that the Roma monument had been held up do to a language debate.
The Jewish Memorial was stark. It consists of 2,711 individual concrete-like blocks. Each block is a different size, therefore each block is unique. My first impression was it was … well stark. There was nothing outside to indict what it was (that is within the Documentation centre underground). My mother said it looked like the grave sites in Belgium. Above ground tombs where they stacked families - once she said that I had to agree and couldn’t see anything else. Kirstein said that the lack of inscription is purposeful. The artist wanted it to be open to interpretation. That he thought that whatever people wanted it to be it should - yet the monument went ahead and spread anti-graffiti paint on the monument so that no one could leave any writings. Something the artist disagreed with. Yet even that decision held controversy. The company who made the paint has a patent. They are the only ones who can make that paint - they also made the gas utilized in the gas chambers of the concentration camps.
I thought it was stark, grey, the look of a gravesite, seemingly artsy and depressing and yet thought-provoking at the same time.
To go inside the documentation centre/information centre you go downstairs. There is a museum person at the entrance. She gives you a pamphlet and warns you that you will have to go through security. We go through, get screened and drop our stuff off at the free coat check. We look through the book store and find an abundance of English language books. I buy the book “Materials on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe”. The text is interesting, and includes periodic mention of Roma. The rooms are really well done, thought provoking. They portray victims’ last writings, post cards, letters, pictures. It’s haunting and it’s overwhelming. There was a quote by Primo Levi: “It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say.”
When we are finished I stop by the exit which has pamphlets. There is one for the Homosexual Memorial. I grab it and it gives directions. This is good because I have not seen its location marked on a map, nor is mentioned in my guidebooks. It went up last year, so perhaps my books are older then the Memorial. I should check this. I see that it is close, so we depart to eat lunch before we try to find it.
Homosexual Memorial
The Homosexual Memorial, which we found after lunch on Tuesday, is literally across the street from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews. The stark contrast between the two is remarkable, made more so because of the similarity in look and the proximity to each other. If you turn around you see the rows and rows of blocks that make up the Jewish Memorial and then you turn to see the Homosexual Memorial and it is one block - granted taller then my 5’4 - but still only one block. It is in a park, but this was winter. The impression is gray and solitaire, the memorial standing in a park by itself. My comment to my mother was that it seemed so lonely.
We walked up to the memorial. There was no one there when we got there - also in stark contrast to the other memorial. There was an opening in the block, covered in some type of glass or plastic and inside the memorial there was a 2 minute video of two men kissing, which repeated. There appeared to be a bullet hole in the middle of the viewing glass/plastic. That added to the overall loneliness of the memorial. Why hadn’t this been replaced or fixed came to my mind. It made me very angry. While we were there two young girls came up, talking in English. They seemed very interested in the Memorial, one discussing what the plague had said at the edge of the park. She also commented that the men didn’t seem to have any chemistry.
When we were leaving two young men came up and watched the film, stopping for a moment to give each other a short kiss. It was incredible sweet and poignant, especially since the plague had said that a simple kiss would have been enough to get you in trouble in Nazi Germany.
Roma Memorial
After the Friday tour group departed the Jewish Memorial, I discussed the debate over the Roma memorial with Kirstein and she stated that within Germany, the name (Roma, Sinti, Gypsy) was hotly contested. One faction wanted to put Gypsy on the monument however, other groups were firmly opposed to this arguing that the term Gypsy was a derogatory term given to Gypsies by Germany and therefore would be insulting to put on the monument. Instead, they argued, that the terms Roma and Sinti should be listed - these are the largest groups i.e. tribes or clans - that were persecuted in Germany. However, they were not the only tribes/clans/gypsies/peoples that were persecuted. They were also two Romany tribes within Germany and the non-German Romani who were persecuted. Within Germany, calling the group the entire group Roma is insulting to some; while outside Germany it is common academic use - in interesting thing to ponder for my thesis writing. Apparently they have resolved this conflict and will be breaking ground soon for the Roma memorial.
Hitler’s Bunker
A quick note on Hitler’s bunker - I thought it fascinating that two different tour guides gave us very different stories of what happened following the death of Hitler. It underscores how much we don’t know. Kirstein told us the body was burned and the charred remains captured by the Soviets. That Hitler’s skull had made up Stalin’s ashtray whereas a different guide said his charred bodied was buried then exhumed, cremated and thrown in the Elba river.
Third Reich Tour
On Saturday we went on the Tour 2: Infamous Third Reich Tour given by Berlin Walks. Our tour guide was a German (I think West) named Elmer. (or something similar to that). The tour was interesting with historical discussions of the Propaganda Ministry, the Air Ministry and so forth. We went to the exhibition called "Topography of Terror" which included the remains of Himmler’s SS and Gestapo (secret police) Headquarters. This site was free and on the other side was the remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. The impressions from that day however were less then others. The Terror exhibition was free and outside so more inclusive of other museums, very informative but also less provocative. The pictures were horrific yet it held much less emotional appeal. I bought the book however to read the exhibit. With so many people, and frankly the cold, we didn’t stop to read everything.
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
On Sunday we took Tour 3 from Berlin Walks, a tour of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (SCC). Having been to Auschwitz I was expecting something quite similar and was surprised to find it very different. During the tour, the guide stressed the difference between extermination camps and labour camps. SCC was a labour camp, it housed a lot of political prisoners and then after the war became an East Germany prisoner camp. The death rates were high, but people were released from the camp. The difference in feeling and structure I attribute between the differences in the focus of the camp. I found it interesting that as a reward there was a brother consisting of women from the Ravensbruck camp. The camp illustrated a strong historical knowledge of the camp via reconstruction and mostly intact or recreated buildings.
One thought that occurred to us while there was how cold the prisoners must have been. It was approx (-5 or -6 C) when we were there, snow covering the ground. We had on two pairs of socks, three to four layers of clothes and we were freezing cold. To think that prisoners had been forced to stand for hours and hours (once they had to stand for 17 hours because all of the prisoners were not accounted for) in the freezing cold. It is not surprising that people died during roll call, forced to not move and endure the weather. The book selection - in English - was only fair which surprised me as previous places I had been had an abundance of English literature.
Jewish Museum
On Monday we went to the Jewish Museum. I had high expectations for the Jewish Museum, however, although a nice museum seemed to be lacking the impact of the others. The shape, design and architecture of the building was created to be significant: a broken Star of David. The shapes on the bottom floor encouraged one to explore going down hallways lined in concentration camp names down one axis and names of countries which people escaped to on the other. But the main exhibits were to abstract in a way. The room where there was nothing, just dusk since the opening at the top which connected the room to the outside world shone some light in it. We stood there, listening to the silence and reflected. Yet it didn’t connect emotionally. The exhibits were nice, the use of space interesting… but the overall impression was lacking. What they included, what they excluded… it seemed nice but lacking impact. It was however, very tactile. There were exhibits kids could climb on, ones you could sit on, more information you could pull out, videos you could start, voting machines with hypothetical questions. Yet I was removed from it, and at one point quite offended by one of the exhibits. Perhaps because I am so familiar with the history, perhaps I was not “getting it” but the overall effect was a wish of something “more.” Of course having said an exhibit offended me I should explain. There was a “game” of sorts. You could be one of four characters and you had to choose what to do in regards to restitution of stolen artwork. I found that all the “correct” decisions, i.e. returning the artwork, left the character deeply hurt, unhappy, or victimized further. Whereas the character choices of being unwilling to help, being a bystander, or even adopting an attitude left one to having a happy successful resolution. I have to wonder, what kind of message were they trying to send?
Ravensbruck Concentration Camp
On Tuesday we went to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp (RCC), which was a women’s and children concentration camp. From Ravensbrock came women prisoners who were sent to SCC and Dachau to work in the Brothels. This camp was smaller yet provoked a more emotional feeling based on the artwork of the camp. Whereas SCC was historical and more unemotional, the artwork evoked strong feelings and thought. (Despite the fact that many of the exhibitions were in German)
One of the exhibitions was a short history of 18 women who were chosen to represent the camp. There was Jews, Roma, and prisoners of war held at the camp - including one British woman whose history we read. The British women experienced torture at the hands of the guards before she was eventually returned to the Allies. There were pictures of young and old women, nuns, and other religious figures. There was a painting Ravensbruck by Joseph Brown which was very evocative regarding women prisoners (Jehovah's Witness) who had smuggled in bible passages to read. The small exhibit on these women was very emotional, and seemed to take on greater emphasis in your mind because of this painting.
The statues throughout the camp were breathtaking in their starkness. The memorial was perhaps one of the most impressive because of these statues and the emotional connection that they created. The snow made everything look picturesque and we felt like we were the only ones there. (To be fair there were not many people there at all - it took us 2 hours to drive from Berlin - so this could be why).
The memorial sculptures - Burdened Women, Woman with Headscarf and Woman with Shaved Head were moving in their quiet dignity. This was an excellent camp, and the feelings evoked have no words to describe. Although, it has to be said that my mother had nightmares that night, so strong of a feeling we carried following this camp.
Nuremberg
From Ravensbrock we drove to Nuremberg. Our first day there we went to the Courthouse. I have my picture taken outside the room where the Nuremberg trials took place. It was interesting - we actually could not go into the court room as trial was taken place.
The surprising part of the city - besides the historical centre being a Mecca of shopping and yummy food and markets was the Documentation Centre. The Concentration Camp book was written in 1998 whereas the Centre opened in 2001 so it was not mentioned there. There was a two or three line blurb in my Lonely Planet guide so we thought while we were there we should stop and see what was at the Centre. We were expected very little, what we found was quite a lot. Although there is only one book in English and you had to use an Audio guide it was an excellent exhibit. Very comprehensive in their throughness of how the Nazi party rose to power and what it was like back then. One of the most outstanding pieces was a video in which people are interviewed: German girls talking about how they would have games of who could see Hitler the most and how excited people were when he came to town. We had no idea of the sheer energy and enthusiasm of the population. It was one thing to read he had popular support and another to watch these interviews and to “feel” the energy. It was certainly unexpected and surprising.
Dachau Concentration Camp
Having heard of this camp most often as an American, it was surprising to find out that this memorial was the least well done in my opinion. Everything was smaller then I thought, with less history transmitted though and less emotion. It of course was interesting, but in comparison, the memorial part of it seems to be less. It really demonstrated however that each camp has its own history, its own experience, and represents a horrific crime against humanity.
Overall
This was a truly humbling trip. No matter how much one researches, there are no words to describe what happened. To not go, would have been a disservice in of itself.
Germany Trip
Berlin
When we arrived in Berlin, it was very cold and somewhat late (22:30). We were staying in West Berlin, not to far from the station that everyone calls the Zoo (Bhf. Zoologischer Garten). We looked over all our research, and decided to take Tour 1: Discover Berlin given by Berlin Walks. This was the tour company recommended in the book Concentration Camps: A Traveler’s Guide to World War II Sites - an extremely handy guide during our entire tour.
We awoke Friday morning and made our way to the Zoo station to meet our tour group for our 10am departure. It was cold (-6 C) and snowing however we warmed ourselves with donuts and coffee at the nearby Dunkin Donuts. Our guide for this morning was Kirstein, an East Berliner who worked full time at a memorial at a former East German prison. - The Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial I believe.
Kirstein was an excellent guide and gave us insights about the various Third Reich and Cold War sites we visited. Among these sites we visited was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe also commonly known as the Holocaust Memorial. During our stop at the Holocaust Memorial, Kirstein reviewed several controversies that surrounded the creation of the sites; I will discuss a few here. I will also include discussion on the inside of the monument which we visited on Tuesday.
The Memorial for the Murdered Jews
First, however, a quick thought about the common nickname of the memorial. The Memorial is for the Murdered Jews and yet it is nicknamed and commonly called (according to our guide) the Holocaust Memorial. The usage of the nickname Holocaust Memorial lends one to think that it is in all encompassing memorial…more so because Holocaust tends to be utilized to refer to the entirety of the Nazi murders, although technically it can be argued this is not the proper terminology. It is an interesting angle to think about - that even the nickname brings up debate, conflict and argument about “proper” use of historical terms.
This leads to one of the first controversies was whether one monument should be built for all of the victims of Nazi Germany or if there should be separate memorials. Within Germany and the occupied territories, Jews were the primary victims - with 6 million dead. Within the concentration camp system, Jews were identified by wearing a yellow triangle.
Roma and Sinti, however, were also victims of genocide (however, the word “genocide” was not utilized in the exhibitions I seen, instead it was stated that the same laws also applied to Roma and Sinti, that these groups were persecuted and sent to ghettos and concentration camps. (It was not mentioned in what I saw but the Roma and Sinti were originally given black triangles - representing the status of anti-social - however, this was later replaced with the brown triangle - representing the Roma race.) In addition homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, and more were victims of Crimes Against Humanity)
Kirstein continued with the overview of controversies stated that the Bundetag (government) finally decided that the monument that was built where we were at would be called - and focus on - the murdered Jews, however, that a separate monument would be built for both the homosexuals and the Roma and Sinti. She informed us that the Homosexual monument was over there (with a wave of her hand) and that the Roma monument had been held up do to a language debate.
The Jewish Memorial was stark. It consists of 2,711 individual concrete-like blocks. Each block is a different size, therefore each block is unique. My first impression was it was … well stark. There was nothing outside to indict what it was (that is within the Documentation centre underground). My mother said it looked like the grave sites in Belgium. Above ground tombs where they stacked families - once she said that I had to agree and couldn’t see anything else. Kirstein said that the lack of inscription is purposeful. The artist wanted it to be open to interpretation. That he thought that whatever people wanted it to be it should - yet the monument went ahead and spread anti-graffiti paint on the monument so that no one could leave any writings. Something the artist disagreed with. Yet even that decision held controversy. The company who made the paint has a patent. They are the only ones who can make that paint - they also made the gas utilized in the gas chambers of the concentration camps.
I thought it was stark, grey, the look of a gravesite, seemingly artsy and depressing and yet thought-provoking at the same time.
To go inside the documentation centre/information centre you go downstairs. There is a museum person at the entrance. She gives you a pamphlet and warns you that you will have to go through security. We go through, get screened and drop our stuff off at the free coat check. We look through the book store and find an abundance of English language books. I buy the book “Materials on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe”. The text is interesting, and includes periodic mention of Roma. The rooms are really well done, thought provoking. They portray victims’ last writings, post cards, letters, pictures. It’s haunting and it’s overwhelming. There was a quote by Primo Levi: “It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say.”
When we are finished I stop by the exit which has pamphlets. There is one for the Homosexual Memorial. I grab it and it gives directions. This is good because I have not seen its location marked on a map, nor is mentioned in my guidebooks. It went up last year, so perhaps my books are older then the Memorial. I should check this. I see that it is close, so we depart to eat lunch before we try to find it.
Homosexual Memorial
The Homosexual Memorial, which we found after lunch on Tuesday, is literally across the street from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews. The stark contrast between the two is remarkable, made more so because of the similarity in look and the proximity to each other. If you turn around you see the rows and rows of blocks that make up the Jewish Memorial and then you turn to see the Homosexual Memorial and it is one block - granted taller then my 5’4 - but still only one block. It is in a park, but this was winter. The impression is gray and solitaire, the memorial standing in a park by itself. My comment to my mother was that it seemed so lonely.
We walked up to the memorial. There was no one there when we got there - also in stark contrast to the other memorial. There was an opening in the block, covered in some type of glass or plastic and inside the memorial there was a 2 minute video of two men kissing, which repeated. There appeared to be a bullet hole in the middle of the viewing glass/plastic. That added to the overall loneliness of the memorial. Why hadn’t this been replaced or fixed came to my mind. It made me very angry. While we were there two young girls came up, talking in English. They seemed very interested in the Memorial, one discussing what the plague had said at the edge of the park. She also commented that the men didn’t seem to have any chemistry.
When we were leaving two young men came up and watched the film, stopping for a moment to give each other a short kiss. It was incredible sweet and poignant, especially since the plague had said that a simple kiss would have been enough to get you in trouble in Nazi Germany.
Roma Memorial
After the Friday tour group departed the Jewish Memorial, I discussed the debate over the Roma memorial with Kirstein and she stated that within Germany, the name (Roma, Sinti, Gypsy) was hotly contested. One faction wanted to put Gypsy on the monument however, other groups were firmly opposed to this arguing that the term Gypsy was a derogatory term given to Gypsies by Germany and therefore would be insulting to put on the monument. Instead, they argued, that the terms Roma and Sinti should be listed - these are the largest groups i.e. tribes or clans - that were persecuted in Germany. However, they were not the only tribes/clans/gypsies/peoples that were persecuted. They were also two Romany tribes within Germany and the non-German Romani who were persecuted. Within Germany, calling the group the entire group Roma is insulting to some; while outside Germany it is common academic use - in interesting thing to ponder for my thesis writing. Apparently they have resolved this conflict and will be breaking ground soon for the Roma memorial.
Hitler’s Bunker
A quick note on Hitler’s bunker - I thought it fascinating that two different tour guides gave us very different stories of what happened following the death of Hitler. It underscores how much we don’t know. Kirstein told us the body was burned and the charred remains captured by the Soviets. That Hitler’s skull had made up Stalin’s ashtray whereas a different guide said his charred bodied was buried then exhumed, cremated and thrown in the Elba river.
Third Reich Tour
On Saturday we went on the Tour 2: Infamous Third Reich Tour given by Berlin Walks. Our tour guide was a German (I think West) named Elmer. (or something similar to that). The tour was interesting with historical discussions of the Propaganda Ministry, the Air Ministry and so forth. We went to the exhibition called "Topography of Terror" which included the remains of Himmler’s SS and Gestapo (secret police) Headquarters. This site was free and on the other side was the remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. The impressions from that day however were less then others. The Terror exhibition was free and outside so more inclusive of other museums, very informative but also less provocative. The pictures were horrific yet it held much less emotional appeal. I bought the book however to read the exhibit. With so many people, and frankly the cold, we didn’t stop to read everything.
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
On Sunday we took Tour 3 from Berlin Walks, a tour of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (SCC). Having been to Auschwitz I was expecting something quite similar and was surprised to find it very different. During the tour, the guide stressed the difference between extermination camps and labour camps. SCC was a labour camp, it housed a lot of political prisoners and then after the war became an East Germany prisoner camp. The death rates were high, but people were released from the camp. The difference in feeling and structure I attribute between the differences in the focus of the camp. I found it interesting that as a reward there was a brother consisting of women from the Ravensbruck camp. The camp illustrated a strong historical knowledge of the camp via reconstruction and mostly intact or recreated buildings.
One thought that occurred to us while there was how cold the prisoners must have been. It was approx (-5 or -6 C) when we were there, snow covering the ground. We had on two pairs of socks, three to four layers of clothes and we were freezing cold. To think that prisoners had been forced to stand for hours and hours (once they had to stand for 17 hours because all of the prisoners were not accounted for) in the freezing cold. It is not surprising that people died during roll call, forced to not move and endure the weather. The book selection - in English - was only fair which surprised me as previous places I had been had an abundance of English literature.
Jewish Museum
On Monday we went to the Jewish Museum. I had high expectations for the Jewish Museum, however, although a nice museum seemed to be lacking the impact of the others. The shape, design and architecture of the building was created to be significant: a broken Star of David. The shapes on the bottom floor encouraged one to explore going down hallways lined in concentration camp names down one axis and names of countries which people escaped to on the other. But the main exhibits were to abstract in a way. The room where there was nothing, just dusk since the opening at the top which connected the room to the outside world shone some light in it. We stood there, listening to the silence and reflected. Yet it didn’t connect emotionally. The exhibits were nice, the use of space interesting… but the overall impression was lacking. What they included, what they excluded… it seemed nice but lacking impact. It was however, very tactile. There were exhibits kids could climb on, ones you could sit on, more information you could pull out, videos you could start, voting machines with hypothetical questions. Yet I was removed from it, and at one point quite offended by one of the exhibits. Perhaps because I am so familiar with the history, perhaps I was not “getting it” but the overall effect was a wish of something “more.” Of course having said an exhibit offended me I should explain. There was a “game” of sorts. You could be one of four characters and you had to choose what to do in regards to restitution of stolen artwork. I found that all the “correct” decisions, i.e. returning the artwork, left the character deeply hurt, unhappy, or victimized further. Whereas the character choices of being unwilling to help, being a bystander, or even adopting an attitude left one to having a happy successful resolution. I have to wonder, what kind of message were they trying to send?
Ravensbruck Concentration Camp
On Tuesday we went to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp (RCC), which was a women’s and children concentration camp. From Ravensbrock came women prisoners who were sent to SCC and Dachau to work in the Brothels. This camp was smaller yet provoked a more emotional feeling based on the artwork of the camp. Whereas SCC was historical and more unemotional, the artwork evoked strong feelings and thought. (Despite the fact that many of the exhibitions were in German)
One of the exhibitions was a short history of 18 women who were chosen to represent the camp. There was Jews, Roma, and prisoners of war held at the camp - including one British woman whose history we read. The British women experienced torture at the hands of the guards before she was eventually returned to the Allies. There were pictures of young and old women, nuns, and other religious figures. There was a painting Ravensbruck by Joseph Brown which was very evocative regarding women prisoners (Jehovah's Witness) who had smuggled in bible passages to read. The small exhibit on these women was very emotional, and seemed to take on greater emphasis in your mind because of this painting.
The statues throughout the camp were breathtaking in their starkness. The memorial was perhaps one of the most impressive because of these statues and the emotional connection that they created. The snow made everything look picturesque and we felt like we were the only ones there. (To be fair there were not many people there at all - it took us 2 hours to drive from Berlin - so this could be why).
The memorial sculptures - Burdened Women, Woman with Headscarf and Woman with Shaved Head were moving in their quiet dignity. This was an excellent camp, and the feelings evoked have no words to describe. Although, it has to be said that my mother had nightmares that night, so strong of a feeling we carried following this camp.
Nuremberg
From Ravensbrock we drove to Nuremberg. Our first day there we went to the Courthouse. I have my picture taken outside the room where the Nuremberg trials took place. It was interesting - we actually could not go into the court room as trial was taken place.
The surprising part of the city - besides the historical centre being a Mecca of shopping and yummy food and markets was the Documentation Centre. The Concentration Camp book was written in 1998 whereas the Centre opened in 2001 so it was not mentioned there. There was a two or three line blurb in my Lonely Planet guide so we thought while we were there we should stop and see what was at the Centre. We were expected very little, what we found was quite a lot. Although there is only one book in English and you had to use an Audio guide it was an excellent exhibit. Very comprehensive in their throughness of how the Nazi party rose to power and what it was like back then. One of the most outstanding pieces was a video in which people are interviewed: German girls talking about how they would have games of who could see Hitler the most and how excited people were when he came to town. We had no idea of the sheer energy and enthusiasm of the population. It was one thing to read he had popular support and another to watch these interviews and to “feel” the energy. It was certainly unexpected and surprising.
Dachau Concentration Camp
Having heard of this camp most often as an American, it was surprising to find out that this memorial was the least well done in my opinion. Everything was smaller then I thought, with less history transmitted though and less emotion. It of course was interesting, but in comparison, the memorial part of it seems to be less. It really demonstrated however that each camp has its own history, its own experience, and represents a horrific crime against humanity.
Overall
This was a truly humbling trip. No matter how much one researches, there are no words to describe what happened. To not go, would have been a disservice in of itself.