Day 91, 4/21/2010

Day 80, 4/10/2010


This day started much the same as the others in Berlin we got up, got ready and then came out to the lobby to eat breakfast. Then, catch the tram that runs in front of that hotel to our destination. Today we would be going to a concentration camp in the morning. It took us a while to get there because it was outside of town a little ways and we had to take a Regional train to get there then a bus a short distance. Once we got there we gathered into our tour group and started the tour. There really isn't much to say. Mostly because most of the camp is gone and a lot of it was changed by the previous government basically to be anti-fascism propaganda. They also left about a big part of the history when it was open to the public. They left out the part about it also being a Russian war camp after the Concentration Camp. I can't tell you much because we didn't really learn much except the way the camp was set up and why. The tour guide wasn't incredibly good and she had a weird fetish with groping the models. Well the weather was very cold with occasional rain. None of us had a heavy jacket so it was like setting the mood for how the prisoners felt as they entered this place. When we entered the camp we went in the same way the prisoners would have when they came to the camp 60-80 years ago. I can't remember the exact years that this camp was used. The saying on the original gate as you entered said in German "Work makes you free," just like Auschwitz. It was set up as a model camp for all the other concentration camps only later it wasn't used because of the impracticality of the triangle layout. It was impossible to add more to the camp in the current layout so they changed it into straight line barracks when they added other barracks later. It was laid out in an equilateral triangle so that one main guard house could guard every row of barracks cause they could see down every row. The gunner in the tower could shoot the machine gun that used to be mounted on top to any part of the camp with accuracy. There was a 'No man's land' line of about 4 meters along any of the walls. If one of the prisoners entered that space they would be shot without warning. Many would step into it as a form of suicide. Many were forced by the cruel SS guards. Others had to make a choice of whether to die or not because the SS guard would have take they're hat which was a required part of their uniform and thrown it into this area. If they didn't have the hat they would be punished with a beating to the lower back which would kill them anyway. Many chose to be killed by the bullet, because it was quick and relatively painless. This was a working camp not an extermination camp so there weren't many Jews in this camp. Most of the prisoners here were political prisoners. Other prisoners included Jews, Gypsies, POWs, Jehovah's Witnesses, Gays and many many others. Most of the people who were killed there were Russian prisoners of war however. I really don't want to talk about much of this because its just way too sad so I'll leave you with a list of the things we saw. After going in the gate and seeing the main triangle and the ring wall that marked the first line of barracks (In front of that was the open area where they had Roll Call) we walked over to a couple of reconstructed barracks so we could see what the inside looked like. Most everything in this place was torn down for use in rebuilding the town because it of course was destroyed during the war just like practically everything else. These barracks were numbers 38 and 39. They were reconstructions of reconstructions. The originals were of course torn down and the other ones were burned by an anti-Jewish arsonist. These were the Jewish Barracks, so it would make since that they would target them. So we sat in there for a while talking about the living conditions of the prisoners in this camp. About how many people slept in the beds and how the hierarchy worked within the prisoners themselves. It was very interesting. Another thing that we saw was some of the punishing devices as well as one of the contraptions they used to trick the Russian soldiers into thinking that they were getting a medical exam, when instead they would be shot in the back of the head. I shudder to think that so many people died in this place. After the barracks we walked over to where they would have killed people by shooting squad and where a mass grave was located for those bodies. On the way we stopped at one of the barrack markers and the guide explained why there were rocks on the barracks. It has to do with a Jewish tradition of placing small stones on a person's grave side out of respect. After that we walked over to the crematorium which was very close by. When we arrived at the crematorium I was a little freaked out. It just gave me this feeling of foreboding. I guess it would be something like what the prisoners felt about this place. It was were most of them were killed if they didn't kill themselves on the electric fence and it is where they burned the bodies. I took pictures but it felt wrong to do so, almost disrespectful. So after that and after she talked about the building we walked out again. It was the end of our tour at this horrible place. I couldn't wait to leave however since I knew that mom would like a book from this place and I've gotten a book at every museum I've visited I had 10 minutes to go to the book store and get the books I wanted and to get back to the bus stop. I made it with plenty of time and we were on our way back to Berlin. I don't remember exactly where we ate lunch. I believe it was at the train station before heading over to Museum island for the rest of the day. At least for me it was the rest of the day. We had to walk quite a ways from the train stop to get to the island museums. About half of us went to one museum while the other half went to a different one. I started this part of the day with the Pergamon Museum. This one I was the most excited about because it had the Ishtar Gate and the Altar of Pergamon inside. I really wanted to see this so this is where I went first. I checked out the book store while the rest of the group waited in line. I had a minor scare when I left my camera in there and didn't know where it was a for a few minutes. I ran all the way back to the book store and the shop keeper had it. Phew! scary moment. Well I walked through the museum and in the first room it was the Altar of Pergamon. This thing was huge. I knew it was big but this thing was huge. I walked around the room and got the best pictures I could with the sheer amount of people in that room. I looked at all the sculptures and the reliefs from the Altar that were lining the walls all around. Then I moved on to the next room. I saw several different really cool things through out the day. The next one was a rebuilt facade of what I think was a temple but it was unlike anything I've ever seen but since this thing wasn't really something I knew about I didn't spend much time there. After a while I came around the corner and there was the Ishtar Gate. I just stood there and gaped, much like I did at all the other museums I'd been to. I rather wish someone had been there to take a picture of my face cause I'm sure my mouth was open. I took a ton of pictures. Well, correction, I took as many pictures as my full memory card would allow. (Yes, I forgot to empty my memory card). I went through and deleted any pictures I didn't absolutely want and took more pictures. I think I might get a book specifically about the Gate when I get back to the states. So I looked at this thing for quite a while walking around and studying it. Then I moved on and kind just breezed through the rest. I'd seen what I wanted to see. So after that I headed to the book store and grabbed what I was interested in like a book then Trisha, Garrett and I headed to the other museum to see it as well before the end of the day. I had to get a ticket with a different group. I believe it was Jacob, David, and Tyler. We weren't allowed to go in until 5:30 After that we only had an hour to see the entire museum. So we waited in line and screwed around until it was our time to go in and off we went into the museum. Of course, I ended up doing the whole thing by myself. I was ok with it there was only one thing in the whole place I was really interested in anyway. That was the Nefertiti bust. It was really neat but it turns out that your not suppose to take pictures of it. I just got one really really blurry picture before I was told no. Its stupid because your allowed to take pictures of the entire rest of the place. So I walked through this place. I don't really remember anything else specific because that was the only part that I wanted to see of the whole thing. I of course bought myself a good book before I left. Then I was all alone. Everyone had left to meet up with Lars and go to a bar. I wanted to go but I wasn't in a hurry because I prefer the museum over a bar. So after that I had to figure out how to get back to the hotel. I knew I needed to go to Alexander Platz but first I needed to find a bus stop/tram stop in order to get to where I needed to go. I had to walk around for quite some time till I found a place then I just got overly frustrated because the maps weren't legible I had no idea where to go or what to do. Eventually I just ended up going on the underground which was out of my way to the platz. It took two train switches to get there too. Finally I was at the platz but yet again I didn't know where I needed to go. So I just walked around trying to figure out what I needed to do. I was too afraid of getting on the wrong tram and I had no idea which one we had been using this whole time. So I called Lars and he told me which train. There was some minor confusion for me because one of the lines at the Alexander Platz stop wasn't working and I didn't know if it was the one going to right way or not. Finally I just decided to get on one and I made it to the hotel. It was lucky of me because I was so afraid of not getting there. When I got there it was over an hour after I left Museum Island. Everyone had already left to eat or go to a bar so I just decided to stay in the room and mess with my comp. I didn't want to get lost trying to find them. That was ok with me. I talked to Sean and wrote in my blog for about 4 hours till I was too hungry to wait anymore. I decided to head out and get some food. I asked the man at the main desk what would still be open because by then it was past 11. He pointed me around the corner. I just walked till I found a nice Italian place called, oddly enough, 'San Angelo's.' Well that made me laugh to myself a little bit and I went in to eat. After that I walked back to the hotel. By this time Lisa and Allie had come back and were in the room with Jason and Jake. So I just messed with my computer and bit longer till the guys left and we went to sleep.