Day 13: West Berlin

Day 13: West Berlin

Today's adventure began with a tour of a few sites we had missed in East Berlin: the Bebelplatz, site of the book burning in 1933, when the Nazi's burned thousands of books they considered to be in opposition to their philosophy. This happened in the square surround by the University and the Berlin opera ... in other words in the center of intellect and culture. And what more is there that you need to know? The suppression of ideas and the terrorizing of those that espouse and support those ideas says all you need to know about any oppressive regime.

As it is Fashion Week in Berlin, we also viewed a small square with a memorial to the Jewish contribution to the fashion industry. In fact, the steps of the subway entrance in that square list the names of those prominent members of the fashion community, (many of whom were Jewish) that were lost in the Holocaust.

And here is the interesting thing I have discovered in Germany: it is almost as if every neighborhood, every industry, every particular interest want to make sure to remember 'their' Jews. Unlike Poland, or Hungary ... and perhaps to a lesser extent the Czech Republic, where there are memorials to the 'victims' (most of whom, if not all, were Jewish), here there is a deliberate consciousness to recognize the Jewish community that was lost and the most major contributions to Berlin and to German.


Nothing speaks to this more than the magnificent Jewish Museum of Berlin. The brilliant architect of this building, Leibnitz, takes you physically through the journey of German Jewry, as through museum artifacts and artwork you learn the story of the almost 2000 years of Jewish life in Germany. The journey begins and ends with the Shoah, as the most distinct and terrible marker in the history of German Jewry. But then you wind your way through a most interesting building, encountering not only fascinating exhibits that tell a most important story, but also 'void' spaces, interruptions in the story that serve as a constant reminder of the moments of terror and death that continually interrupted the continuity of Jewish life in Germany. And yet, as you learn from even the staircase you ascend to the top of the exhibition whose steps extend beyond the exhibition, there remains a future, the story is not complete. We may not know where our steps will lead us, but certainly even this museum can not tell the entire story, which has yet to be written.

This museum, is, in and of itself, worth the trip to Berlin. One can not be in the vicinity of Berlin and miss this very, very impressive and important testament to the Jewish community of Berlin, Germany and, by extension, Europe.

Of course, there was a brief moment for shopping as well as we ventured ever so briefly to KaDeWe, the famous, Jewishly built and once again Jewishly owned department story in West Berlin. This huge department store has a little bit of everything ... but we, in particular made our way to the 4th floor where the souvenirs could be found ... or to the 6th floor with its most impressive display of all sort of delectable treats. We bought and we ate and we saved some for later.

Returning to the bus, our tour guide Mona had waiting for us 'Berliners', these are the original soufganiyot ... or jelly donuts that we eat on Hanukkah. And this led to the continuation of a debate we have been having for two days about J.F.K's famous words in 1961 following the building of the Berlin wall. In order to express solidarity with the now surrounded West Berliners and imprisoned East Berliners he famously stood on the balcony of a West Berlin civic building and declared "Ich bin ein Berliner" (my apologies if i have not quite gotten the spelling of the German) I am a Berliner ... or, as has been noted, "I am a jelly donut!", as Berliner is also the name of these tasty treats. The truth is both are correct. And further, the people of Berlin clearly knew what Kennedy was saying , even though they do not express themselves this way. So that they are not confused with jelly donuts, they tend to say, Ich bin aus Berlin, I am from Berlin. So take your pick, JFK could have been expressing his solidarity, or the fact that he was hungry ... or maybe both all wrapped up quite efficiently in one German sentence.

Following the museum, we returned home to prepare for an evening out, which began with havdallah in a nearby park,
where we joined together for a final time to reflect on this amazing journey. It is hard to believe we are almost at the end. Tomorrow will be our final day as we travel to Potsdam, the site of the Wansee conference that decided upon the final solution.

And tomorrow will also be my final entry in this blog. See you