Summer Program in Germany
Here are some group pictures of our group, since nothing has really been posted lately. We’re all doing well and enjoying our time here! (Also, I am not sure how to make the pictures bigger)
History has many scars where men have done terrible deeds. Mao in China, Stalin in Russia, colonialism, apartheid, slavery, Hitler in Europe, the list goes on and on. With modern technology and large populations, these tragedies grow vastly in size. On this trip we had the opportunity to wrestle with one of these tragedies: the Holocaust. Continue reading “Reflections on Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, the Holocaust Museum, and the Jewish Museum”
Our visit to the Concentration camp Sachsenhausen was a depressing occasion with buildings that were used in all the atrocities against the Jews. While Sachsenhausen was not as large of a killing camp as Auschwitz there were still an ungodly amount of murders here. Some of the things I saw were a track used to test shoe materials for troops (the Jews and others in this camp were forced to run all day with large loads), ovens for burning deadbodies. However, that is not to say it wasn’t worth the hour trip. It was a useful trip to gain insight into the German past and the culture of Germany today. It’s one thing to hear about what happened in the 30s and 40s but its another thing to visit the place where these things happened. Germans have a word Vergangensheitsbewältigung which translates roughly to “Overcoming the Past” this is the word used when Germans talk about their Nazi past. Going to Sachsenhausen I was able to get a glimpse of how deeply emotional this history and word is to the Germans because even as an American that is not associated with these things I felt a deep sadness cling to me when I visited.
This feeling of sadness or maybe even shame about their past has led to a culture that is vastly different from ours. Germans are very rarely outspokenly “patriotic”. That is to say that Germans don’t act like Americans that are typically prideful of few things more than being an American. Germans on the other hand are not openly prideful of their country (that is not to say they aren’t they are just wary of being extremely patriotic). The one place that Germans show their national pride (something that I have seen personally while here) is in sports, especially Soccer. While Germany is not over what happened in WWII, they are learning how to have pride in their country while not ignoring their past.
Living in Germany is a big change from living in America. Berlin is much more fast paced and very set on a specific schedule where as back home, I can live on my own schedule and I don’t have to worry about catching busses or trains. I miss not having my own car but the public transportation here is very good. I really miss air conditioning. Basically every building we go into doesn’t have air conditioning. I also miss having an oven and a refridgerator because we are very limited as to what we can buy from the grocery store. We have been living off microwaveable noodles and bread with Nutella. I wish America was as strong on recycling as Germany is. We save all of our bottles because we can return them for .25 euros each. I also wish America had more german food like good bratwursts, döners, and drinks.
My first impressions of Berlin are that there is more open space than any other European city that I have visited. I was excited to come visit Germany because soccer and or Futbol is the most popular sport in the country. I have been able to try new foods, Doner is my favorite. I have also come to appreciate public transportation which I don’t use in the united states. I miss free drinking water and air conditioning. The things I would bring back are these candies called Fruit and Mezzo Mix which is Cola mixed with Fanta. Mezzo Mix is only sold and produced officially in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. I am pretty sure I could make my own Mezzo Mix at home.
After visiting both the Holocaust museum and the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, I realized how much of an impact that the holocaust had on the history of Germany during WWII and affects the country today. The holocaust was one of the largest genocides in recorded history where the Nazi party wanted to create the “perfect race” of Germans so in order to do that they sent P.O.W.’s (Prisoners of War), Jews, or anyone against the regime into concentration camps like Sachsenhausen all over Germany and the other areas that they occupied during the war, where they were malnourished, worked to death, or killed via gas chamber . After the war and to this day, Germans are not proud of their nations past. Today in Germany, students are required to visit the holocaust museum and or concentration camps to prevent history form repeating itself. Personally, it scares me how man could do such horrors to other men just because they weren’t like them. The visit was a sobering experience that I will always keep with me always.
Being able to visit a real concentration camp and walk around inside of it was very mind blowing and disturbing. It was bone chilling to see the conditions that the Germans put the Jews through. This experience is not comparable to just seeing pictures of concentration camps and hearing stories of the horrors. It saddens me to think that people could put other people through such horrible experiences. When I walked around the camp, I tried to imagine what it felt like to be contained there and how I would feel after being torn away from my family.
I think it is really important to not bury these stories but instead educate the world so that we can avoid something like this from happening in the future.
Being in Germany, learning about WW2 and many of the crimes committed during the war is an interesting experience. Continue reading “Reflections”
Recently, our group took a trip to the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp just north of Berlin. It was one of the most humbling things I have ever experienced. Continue reading “Sachsenhausen Reflection”
It was very interesting after visiting the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and the holocaust museum to see how much the Germans are making an effort to show what they did during WWII and to remember the people that died. There are also plaques throughout the entire city that show who lived in that building during WWII and the concentration camps they were sent to. They had plaques for people that died during the Holocaust and also for those that escaped and survived. The Holocaust museum was interesting because there were a lot of quotes from Jews about what they had to experience and what they witnessed. One particular quote I remember was from someone that survived the Holocaust. She mentioned how she was not an important character to tell the story of what happened because the important people were the ones that died.