History and Attrocities (Day 3 of Germany)

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009:



So, now that our very eventful, long, FUN, and stressful drive to Berlin was behind us (and a few beers in us, I might add), it was time to be tourists. People always make fun of tourists but aren't we all when we're not at home?



Woke up really early. I set my alarm for about 6am everyday there. Yes, we were out late on most nights but our thought was that we could sleep any ole time. When and how often do we have the chance to visit Europe?



So... 6am and of course I want....wait....need some coffee. In Germany, there are these little stands literally on every corner. Some are in actual spaces, some are carts. But they're called Imbiss and they genereally have snack foods, bratwurst, Cola, etc. Well, tehre was one right between our hotel and the little bar I had gotten ripped in the night before. It was a small shop up front and most obviously a man and his wife's abode in the back. They were having coffee themselves in the back part (the door separating the two was open). The gentleman came to the front and cheerfully wished me a good morning ("morgen"). I ordered a cup of coffee and a little pastry filled with apples. WOW!!! Some of you know (most of you don't) that a well-made apple fritter is my morning vice. This little apple-pastry was nothing like a fritter but blew the fritter completely out of the water. Wow! You know what was even better? The two of them together was less than 2 Euros. :) SCORE! Of course the cup of coffee was tiny compared the Venti I get daily at home but it was good coffee and I appreciated its morning power. :)



Even though we're at the end of May, it was downright cold over there. Well... atleast to us Arizonans. How cold? Maybe 14-18°C. Not freezing, mind you. But not shorts on a motorcycle weather, either.

Went back to the room and took a.....bath? Shower? Mix of the 2? Bawer? The bathing situation of there was interesting. First of all, I don't take baths, I shower. Have any of you ever watched Everybody Loves Raymond? There is an episode where they go to Italy and there is a scene where Ray is taking a bath but has to hold a shower head in his hand to get water on him. Well, that was me. It was just strange to me to be sitting in a tub but holding a shower head.




We decided not to eat hotel breakfast this morning as it just seemed too expensive for us and we didn't know what to expect, anyway. Instead, we found the car, opened up some maps and decided we would hit up the Brandenburg Gate first. So, we plugged it into the trusty ole BlackBerry, once again and off we went.



Ok, I forgot to mention that it was now close to 8am. It took us a couple hours to drink our tiny coffee and get ready for the day. Why is this important? Well, rush hour traffic in a major city is not just an American affliction. Apparently, it is a global pandemic. :)



So, here we were, in the Punto on roads which were poorly marked and in a foreign language. I'm still only about 36 hours into the driving in Germany experience so I was not entirely comfortable although the rush hour experience will get you up to speed pretty quickly. Aside from being generally lost but feeling like we were headed in the right direction, we got to see a couple of interesting things. One was a guy on a scooter (like a vespa) that got hit by a car. He was alright but it's just not something you get to see everyday. The other point of interest was me almost running over several bicyclists. Not funny at all...especially when you're being cursed at in German.



Finally made our way through and around town enough to say we'd travelled it several times. You see...there really is no grid to the majority of the streets. They just sort of go whichever way was most convenient at the time of their construction. So, I took many turns thinking "it goes in the right direction" and that always got me further into the state of "lost." But then there was the Victory Tower. What a gorgeous piece of architecture that just sits as the conterpiece of a large round about now. A piece of history...

At this point, we're starting to see some tour bus activity so we figured they would be heading to the place we wanted to go...Pariser Platz. Sure enough we followed them long enough and I could finally see the famous Qudriga that sits atop the gate above some of the buildings in the area. I got a little lucky and found a parking space fairly close to the whole thing so we parked. The pay parking over there is pretty similar to ours. There were these little machines that you put in your money and got a little receipt that you had to put in the window. So, instead of a meter at ever spot, there was one meter to get your receipt and display it.

The parking spot was right next to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe--a 4.7 acre field of black concrete slabs (2,700 of them). They were very solemn. Rows and rows of these slabs. Up and down the little hills. One could easily go into the rows and be in darkness even in mid day. Beneath the slabs was an Information Center that contained to names of all the known Holocaust victims. Very sad.

Since we had not eaten breakfast yet, we saw a Dunkin Doughnuts...yeah, Dunkin Doughnuts of all places. We had a couple of these doughnuts and some coffee and proceeded to walk to Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg gate. The direction we came from actually put us right next to the American Embassy in Berlin.

Then, there we were. So awe inspiring to look at the same piece of architecture that Napolean fought and won at. The same place that Hitler draped his horrendous Nazi flags at and paraded through in a show of power. The very same place that was utterly detroyed near the end of WWII. All of the buildings around demolished except for the gate itself. The symbol of Prussian Power prior to its collapse as a nation. The place where just on the other side, President Ronald Reagan spoke for democracy. The symbol of a divided nation that had previously wrapped around the gate. Wow. I couldn't get enough of looking at it.

There were these two Italian men playing guitars near the gate and selling CD's for 5 Euros each. I bought one even though music is clearly Italian inspired. It was just neat. There was also a man dressed in traditional German Military attire making fake Visas that were used to get through the various sectors of Berlin...The French, British, American, and Soviet sectors each had their own stamp admitting you through the sectors on a single visa. Of course we got a couple of those.

After about an hour of just being in the presence of this magnificent work of art, we took a little stroll down to the Bundestag (formerly known as the Reichstag). This is the big German Parliament building with the words Dem Detschen Volke in giant letters above the main entrance. It was an amazing sight as well...knowing the history that has occured in this very building. We were actually stopped outside of the Bundestag by a news crew asking us about our opinions on the upcoming European elections. We explained that we were American so we really didn't have any knowledge or input about it.

We left the Bundestag and went back towards the Brandenburg Gate. We were hungry and remembered seeing a few restaurants in the area. We stopped at one called the Hofbrauhaus Berlin. I don't remember what I had but it was delicious. My wife, on the other hand, ordered a baked potato and when that thing came out, it took up the whole damn plate! HUGE potato covered in this thin sour cream. The sour cream over there was a real point of interest to us because there was something different about it. We eventually looked up what it was and the difference was the dill they put in the sour cream. Delicious!!! Of course, I had a couple beers with lunch. I seemed to have beer with every meal over there (except breakfast--not that I'm opposed to it, it just wasn't available). I ordered Pils, of course (Pilsner Beer) since that's the common style of beer--at least in Berlin. As we were sitting at lunch, we both made comments about how it really wasn't all that different there than here. People coming and going...eating lunch....catching the bus. Just in a different language and with a different cultural flare.

After lunch we were trying to figure out exactly what to do. It was still fairly early in the day and we had daylight until 10pm, anyway. We had time. We input the address to the last remaining portion of the Berlin wall into the Blackberry and set our course. It started raining while were driving and the whole atmosphere was just plain gloomy. Knowing we were in former East Berlin and heading to see a wall that did not serve to keep people OUT of a country. It kept its own people IN their country. Sort of backwards and not ever really recorded in history aside from East Germany. On the way to the wall, we once again found ourselves sharing our driving lane with the train tracks. That was something that we didn't understand the whole time we were there. We really had to pay attention to if a train was coming so we could get the hell out of the way.

We made it to the wall. The rain had slowed to a drizzle and the streets were shiny with the standing puddles and just moisture in general. We had parked right next to a cemetery which coincidentally was just on the west side of the portion of the wall that was left standing. There was a plaque on the wall in both German and English and we read where they had to move all the graves in the cemetery back (West) to make room for the wall. Horrible. The portion of the wall was open on the side and we were able to walk in the open section between the physical barriers. If you don't know, it was not just a wall. It was a wall, then a very wide section to patrol in, and then another wall for the other side.

Across from the wall was an information center and gift shop. The info center had a short tower that we cold climb to the top of and see out over the wall. That put an even bigger perspective on things. You could visually follow the path of the now fallen wall through the city. Like a barren wilderness just a few yards wide in the midst of a large city. To the right we could see a big pile of rubble from where the wall was torn down. I don't know how long it had been sitting there but it was still various shades from the graffiti that had once adorned the wall. You've seen the pictures. While we were atop the tower, there was a tour going on. The group consisted of what was obviously a bunch of American High School students. The tour guide was apparently of American background but now resided in Berlin. It was interesting to hear her speak to the tour group about some of the history of the wall. One of the things she shared really took me by surprise. She had mentioned how many East Germans were disappointed when the wall came down because, regardless of how the democratic world viewed the communist nations, people had their identities as such and now were forced to live how others thought they should. We were done with the wall. Quite moving. We stopped at the gift shop and bought a couple books and a postcard that had a piece of the wall in it (in a little plastic bubble attached to the card. It's kind of neat to say that I own a piece of the Berlin Wall.

I forgot to mention that we had gotten a tour book of Berlin and the surrounding area from the receptionist back at the Alfa Hotel. Within the book, there was mention of a concentration camp just outside of Berlin called Sachsenhausen. It was situated just on the edge of a town called Oranienburg. Literally on the edge of town. So, we decided that it was a must that we one of these for ourselves. Neither of us really knowing what to expect. So, into the Blackberry it went and we were on our way...about 35km.

Sure, we got lost a couple of times on the way but eventually found where we were supposed to be. There were actually signs for the camp as we got deeper into town. That made it easier for us. As mentioned in an earlier blog, the signs were brown with white lettering to mark the historic landmark. Way back at the end of town as you head from the Autobahn, there it was. It already looked gloomy. Coming up the camp, we were greeted by the sight of a tower at the corner of a wall. On that wall was the constantan wire. Of course we were on the outside of the camp but it still looked overwhelming.

We weren't exactly sure where to go but we found a welcome center that was once the headquarters for the whole base. Aside from being a camp (Konzentrationslager), this was also a military base and more specifically a weapons storage facility. Everything around was dedicated to the German military at one point and the concentration camp was just a part of it all.

I want to take a minute here to shed some light on the idea behind concentration camps as they were designed to be...not what they ended up being. I learned about it while visiting Sachsenhausen so, I'm no expert. These camps were designed for storage of prisoners of war. Not meant to kill people but to put them to work. In fact, Sachsenhausen was more of a Soviet POW camp than anything else. Of course, eventually, the atrocities of the era would change everything about that.

Inside the welcome center, there were several personal items that were discovered and on display. Some were letters, spoons, diaries, shoes.... It was almost just too heavy. I don't know if that makes sense to everyone but your heart hurt a little when you read the translations from these letters. There was also a bookstore within the center. My wife and I browsed through several books and read some of the personal accounts of what was witnessed at the camps. Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz (Auchwiz), and others. The stories were sad. Very sad.

We left the center and made the 400 meter walk down to the entrance of the camp. The wall was to our left, looming over us as we walked. To the right were historic barracks that were built for the Nazi officers who worked the camps. To the left, we finally made it to the gate. Inside the first gate, it looked like this was at one time a sort of receiving area. There was a gate and walls but there were other walls and a gate a little further beyond. We walked through this receiving area and got to the main gate to the camp. Wow... you almost didn't even want to walk through the gates. Like if you went in, you were entering hell on your own accord. On the iron gate were the words that appeared on every concentration camp gate: "Arbeit Macht Frei." Work Means Freedom.

Most of the barracks (that's what the Germans called them) had been burned down by activist groups throughout the years. But, the semicircle arrangement of the barracks was still very easy to discern. I would ask that you look up the Sachsenhausen camp so you can see what I'm talking about. Although this one is not as known as Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen was the model for concentration camps going forward. It was the first one.

Off to the right were the barracks that were dedicated to the Jews that were brought to Sachsenhausen. We went to those barracks to see the inside. It was horrible. The room that contained the bunk beds was small and number of beds was outright unbelievable. How was it even possible for this many people to be forced into a single room. There was a general community room, as well. Many tables in rows where they were allowed to congregate when they had the chance. The restrooms and bathing rooms were roped off but you could see in them. By each, there were plaques with stories about the evil things that were done to the Jews while in each. Once, a man washed his feet in the washroom (there were places to actually wash feet). A Nazi officer drowned him for that. Right there in the room I was looking into. It was very easy to get choked up when reading these stories.

On the opposite end of these barracks was a museum type display of many other items recovered from the camp. All along the walls were pictures and stories about the innocent people in their prior lives. There was a timeline along the walls which gave me a better understanding of how and when Hitler decided that the Jews were a European "problem." The part that bothers me is that so many people bought into it. How? I don't get it.

We left the barracks and started walking through the camp in general. There were many towers along the walls. Also parallel to the walls was a "caution zone" that was about 5 yards wide. This separated the wall from the rest of the camp. It was wide open but had rocks instead of grass. If a prisoner crossed that line, they were shot. No warnings. Just shot. We walked through a lot of the camp but didn't go all the way to the back. I was under the impression that it was only a train station back there (prisoners were brought in that way, as well). It wasn't until after I got back home that I realized that there were actually execution trenches back there. It is difficult to say without sounding odd but I really would have liked to see that. Not for any good reason really. It's just something that I can say I looked upon with my own eyes. Something that represented how evil humans can be to one another. But it was sort of raining and we needed to get back to the car soon.

We walked back to the car. The walk seemed long and we really didn't say much to each other. Just sort of taking it in. After getting in the car, we saw signs for a mass grave. We did go to see that. It was a large squared off piece of land in the middle of a field, just behind the walls of the camp. Very sad. Ugh.....

It was now around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and we were hungry. We drove through the town of Oranienburg a couple of times. Either we didn't know what what we were hungry for or we just weren't ready to eat. I don't know. One of the sights that really was something to see was Schloss Oranienburg. It seemed like every little town had a Schloss or two in it. That was either a castle or a mansion. Either way, the term was the same. Schloss Oranienberg sat along the bank of the River Harvel. Big, beautiful white mansion.

After a couple of trips around town, we found ourselves outside of town a little and settled on a little place along a different part of the river. That looked good enough for us so we stopped. I should have known by the blue and white exterior decor and the chosen font of the place that it was a Greek restaurant but I wasn't paying enough attention. I'm not really a big fan of Greek food outside of real Gyros (not the bullshit you get over here). Once we sat down, however, I felt it would have just been rude to leave so we ate there, regardless. The meal started with a shotglass of Ouzo for each of us. I hear many people talk about ouzo and many others wanted to make sure I drank it while I was there. I had ouzo back in the 90's and didn't care for it. This time was no different. It really tastes like burnt licorice to me. I don't recall what we had to eat but we finished up and headed back to Berlin.

By this time, directions were getting much easier to follow. My wife was learning more about reading the directions, and I was learning more about how to actually follow them. We made it back into town and I had exited the Autobahn. I stopped at a red light that was positioned just before a roundabout. Once I got the green, off I went. I damn near hit someone but made it through without incident. The next turn was coming up but I wan't exactly sure where it was. All of sudden, there was the street I was supposed to turn on. I was going like 60km/h. Shit! I hit the brakes and turned left as quickly as I could. I then thought to myself that the streets of Berlin might be better navigated a touch more slowly. So, I slowed it down. There was this van behind me and he was right on my ass. I decided that I needed to speed up the get him off of me. He was trying to pass me so, relieved, I moved over a little. Just as he got to the side of me, an oncoming car forced him to fall back in behind me. By now, I'm irritated and just want this guy to go around me ASAP. Well, he gets beside me this time and stays beside me. I look over and there's this gy hanging out of the window with a lit sign that says "Stop." Great.

I pull over and the van pulls over in front of me. The guy from the passenger side gets out and comes to my side of the car. He pulls out his badge from inside of his shirt (wearing it like a necklace) and begins speaking to be in a very flat but fast German. Because I don't even think he stopped to breathe, I let him finish before telling him politely that I didn't speak German. He motioned for the driver to come back there with him and asked him in German if he spoke English. Of course the driver (another cop) did not speak English, either. I was a little baffled, actually. Now, I already feel bad because I didn't speak their language while being in their country but of all places, I figured Berliners would speak English. After several minutes of neither one of them knowing what to do, I understood that the roundabout I had gone through earlier apparently had another red light in the MIDDLE of the roundabout. It had been red for 4 seconds when I went through it That must have been why I almost hit another car. Oops. But who the hell puts a red light IN the roundabout. Aren't those supposed to negate the need for traffic signals? Regardless, they let me off the hook and off we went. Heart was pounding cause I was nervous as hell but we made it through that.

Back to the Alfa Hotel we went. By the time we had gotten back, t was really starting to get dark. We were tired and had seen and done many things today. I was really looking forward to tomorrow by then. It was time for bed.