Day 12: East Berlin

Day 12: East Berlin

We spent the day exploring what was the Jewish community of east Berlin.  Like in so much of Europe, I felt as if we were pursuing ghosts. 'This used to be here."  "He lived here"  "They worshiped here"

Between the Nazi terror, the allied bombing and the communist disinterest, little is left of what used to be.  That is not to say that there is not a lot there.  East Berlin is bustling!  Filled with life and people.  New businesses, new restaurants, new buildings ... some built to look new, some built to resemble what had been ... but all new, just the same.

We visited the home that Abraham Geiger, one of the founders of Wissenschaft des Judentums, (the scientific study of Judaism), which became so central to the developing Reform movement,  used to live in, situated in what is now a lovely East Berlin chain of courtyards.  We visited the cemetery where he is buried (it was closed early for Shabbat).  There is nothing there as the cemetery was completely destroyed after the German defeat at Stalingrad in 1943.  Only Geiger's tombstone has been recreated.

We stood in front of the cemetery where a Jewish old age home used to stand.  It was the gathering place for Jews being shipped out of Berlin to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

Interestingly enough, next door is a Jewish school.  It was a Jewish school before the war and continues to be a Jewish school today.  25% of its students are not Jewish, but they learn Hebrew, study Jewish customs, etc.  Above the entrance way is a sign declaring that it is a Jewish school.  According to our tour guide, it is the only sign with the word Jew on it in Berlin that predates the war.

There are memorials everywhere you look, reminders of what used to be.  Brass plaques in the street proclaiming the name of the Jewish family that used to live in this place ... and where they died.  There is a memorial to the children sent out of Germany on the kindertransport in 1938, memorials to those deported from Berlin, etc.  We have seen memorial after memorial in our journey from Warsaw to Berlin.  But, today we encountered on of the most impressive.


It is a memorial made of 2711 (?) individual blocks of concrete like material.  Why 2711?  No reason.  Each block made of a different size, some come up to your knee some tower over you.  They are laid out across a plaza, next to the Brandenburg Gate in columns and rows that undulate up and down, that are laid out at angles so that you are never standing quite on flat ground.  As you walk into the memorial you start to lose your sense of balance, when you turn a corner you have no idea who will be there, you start to feel unbalanced, even dizzy and certainly disoriented.  And that is exactly the point of this brilliant piece ... to make you feel exactly that, uncomfortable, unbalanced, disoriented, ...  It is one of the most interactive pieces of interactive art that I have ever seen.  It is not to be missed if one is in Berlin.


It was pointed out to us that the shopping center across the street from the memorial sits atop what was the bunker in which Hitler took his life.  No one knows exactly where that bunker was anymore.  The German government wanted to make sure it did not become a place of memorial for anyone, at anytime in the future.

Shabbat evening started the "New Synagogue"  (new in the  late 1800's). It was a huge, Moorish style synagogue that served the Jewish community of Berlin until 1941.  During Kristalnacht it was saved from destruction by a non-Jewish German policeman, who considered it a treasure of Berlin and not to be destroyed.  He held up a piece of blank paper in front of those set on destroying the synagogue and said he had an order that it was to be spared.  And so it was ... at least until the Allied bombing of Berlin when all but the facade was destroyed.   Since 1989 it has been partially restored and now serves both as a museum and as a working Conservative (Masorati) congregation.

The service, held in a smaller chapel was jam packed, mostly with visitors but with a sizable congregation as well.  We heard a d'var Torah from the president of the Mesorati (conservative) movement in Israel, an American born rabbi, who spoke  about some of the challenges facing us as liberal Jews in responding to the "zealous" orthodox establishment.

I think we all sat there thinking the same thing, "Here we are in Berlin, sharing Shabbat services in a vital, living congregation ... in Berlin!"  It brought a smile to all our faces.

Following a light dinner, some of us headed off for a bit more to eat.  We were directed by our guide to a more local area where we joined in conversation and much laughter at a local Brazilian style restaurant.  At midnight we found ourselves walking home from across a still very much alive and vibrant city.

Tomorrow: West Berlin