Our first stop Thursday was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of the Holocaust. This is truly an exibit that you need to experience instead of view from afar. I find it eerie to walk through the columns and hear the echo of children's laughter and catch glimpses of your friends walking by. It's as if you see flashes of them for a moment and then they are gone, almost as if they are disappearing from your life.
Next we went to one of my favorite places in Berlin: Potsdamer Platz. If you know the history of Berlin regarding the East/West divide you know that Potsdamer Platz was a virtual wasteland as a part of No-Man's Land. It is so amazing to me that everything there has been built within the past 20 years and now it is back to being a commercial center of Berlin, as it was before the Berlin Wall went up. We able to see individual sections of the wall as well as a length of the wall that is still standing.
I also had the opportunity to see the Soviet Memorial in East Berlin. I had no idea it was there and it was enormous! It really was quite a spectacular monument and it was a beautiful day to walk along viewing it...the nice weather must have been the result of Dr. Youngman singing the Brady Bunch's "Sunshine Day". For those of you who don't know, the Soviets had originally built a memorial to Soviet soldiers almost immediately after the end of World War II...in what ended up being West Berlin. Since the Soviets occupied East Berlin and had very limited access to the memorial in West Berlin they designed a spectacular monument in the East. As Emily explained, the contrast in the size of the two Soviet Memorials goes to show how much of a difference planning time makes. I almost skipped seeing the East Soviet Memorial but am so glad that I went.
Walking distance with group: 9.13
Total walking distance: 10.62
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Today, friday the 12, we visited one of the most interesting buildings yet, the Jewish History Museum in Berlin. Although this is a museum, this is not the typical building. Everything is unique, including the building itself. The building takes the shape of a lightning bolt. Even the floors and ceilings are uneven which has the effect of disorienting the vistors. This is supposed to represent the uneasy atmosphere the Jews have experienced in Germany, and boy did it work. For the majoritz of the time within the museum, I felt as if I was lost, and disoriented. Many of the exhibts were interactive which added an entire other level to the museum experience. Anybody who vists Berlin needs to visit this museum.
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