The Wall

Berlin is a very modern city.  It feels North American, almost.  The architecture is a diverse collection of urban art.

This building houses one of the embassies, I did not find out which one.

The Berlin Philharmonic building.

  

As you tour through Berlin, the difference between East and West is still evident.  The West flourishes with architecture and big-name enterprises.  The East has typical, box-like, Soviet style buildings. 

Typical "East" style building.

Berlin carries the weight of the Holocaust.  I visited the Jewish Museum and it was an intimate collection of memorabilia, stories, letters and artifacts.  The museum isn't just about the holocaust, it has full Jewish history from 900 BC to today.

"Jews not served here" sign from the 1930's.

Inside the Jewish Museum are spaces referred to as the Memory Void.  The architect designed the building with many open spaces, odd corners, dead-ends and rooms that force you to reflect on the symbolism of these voids.  One room contains Menashe Kadishman's art called "Fallen Leaves".  There are 10,000 faces covering the floor to represent the innocent victims of war and violence. 



"Fallen Leaves" by Menashe Kadishman



One word describes Berlin:  classy.  The way the city has risen from despair is remarkable.  Berlin emits the major crises that define the city with responsibility, honesty and humanity.  I question the word humanity as it is a derivative of the word humane.  How can the implication of what "humane" implies be associated with humans?  The human race has acted deplorably and appears to be more animalistic and savage than anything remotely caring and pacifistic.

Photo:  Onlookers and massive open-pit grave filled with murdered Jews.

Let's put this in perspective.   I know that everyone understands the horror and tragedy of the holocaust, but let us not forget.  Six million Jews were murdered:   this is the equivalent of wiping out the populations of Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa and the entire province of Saskatchewan.

Photo:  Jewish man being murdered above another mass of dead bodies.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is a series of above ground pillars.  Underneath is a collection of the horrors of the holocaust. 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

I read letters from men, women and children describing what it felt like to know they were being evacuated soon.  One lady wrote a good-bye letter to her friend and co-worker that she could not say good-bye to in person.  The letters detailed the appalling conditions of the concentration camps and how easy it was to lose hope yet how they maintained their strength.  My eyes were not dry and my stomach felt like it was filled with cement.

Speaking of cement, I now have a small piece of the Berlin wall in my suitcase.  They call people like me 'woodpeckers' as we peck away at the wall, stealing a piece of history.  Very little of the wall exists.  What remains is a twin line of cobblestones to mark where the wall stood. 

The Berlin Wall Monument.

Twin cobblestones mark the location of The Wall.

There is an interpretive center called the Topographie des Terrors.  Not only does this interpretive centre border The Wall, but it was the Gestapo headquarters.

The Berlin Wall Monument site.

In the Eastern quarter, there is a significant stretch of the wall remaining.  It is a beautiful work of art and the world's longest mural. 

Section of the mural on the Berlin Wall.

Another mural.

The evolution of art from a site of deaths and murders does not reduce the historical importance.  It draws you in, and forces you to remember through whatever artistic interpretation touches you the most.  The hope is that by remembering, history won't repeat itself, right?

Berlin was divided into 4 quarters, and the security of one of the quarters was enforced by the Americans. 

The American quarter checkpoint site.

In this location, there was a checkpoint  that determined who could cross to the West, and who could not.   Checkpoint Charlie (Checkpoint C) now hosts a museum. 

Live actor re-enacting the rituals of the checkpoint.

The Checkpoint Charlie museum includes stories of the many deaths associated with people trying to cross from East to West.  Families were torn apart.  There are some amazing stories of people smuggled across the border, and extremely brave attempts at escaping. 

Two suitcases were joined together, and a hole was cut in-between.

This 5'7" woman was smuggled across the border in the two suitcases.

This musician smuggled his girlfriend across in a speaker.

There were several tunnels created under the wall that allowed Easterners to surface on the non-communist side.  Can you imagine the stress of digging a tunnel, day -after-day, hoping not to get caught?  Just the thought weighs heavily on my heart.

A man crawling through a tunnel under The Wall.

Berlin was emotional but welcoming.  The Berliners are empathetic and heartwarming.  My time in Berlin has changed who I am, and I am thankful for that.