We visited the very impressive "Topography of Terror" museum in Berlin - the site of the Gestapo and SS offices, prisons and massacres between 1933 and 1945. It is directly behind the leftovers of the wall on Niederkirchner Strasse in the formerly western part of Berlin, very close to Checkpoint Charlie.
inside the Asisi-Panorama
Directly opposite Checkpoint Charlie is the noteworthy and sobering Asisi-Panorama, a reconstruction of a part of the wall in pictures from the 1980s with broadcast voices. Two areas of devastating human experiences, of merciless mass murders, so close together in this nowadays rather peaceful city. It seems impossible to fathom, how people not too long ago could twice within less than forty years commit such sins against humanity. The need to belong to a group, to do as everybody does and conform to expectations, is much stronger than the individuals' conscience and rational brain. We see in the occasional outbreak of violence against strangers in all parts of Germany (and elsewhere in the world) that a primeval and animalish Angst can take over. It needs to be addressed rationally and overcome.
Close by, on Lindenstrasse 9 - 14, is the Jewish Museum with its expressive Daniel Libeskind architecture.
It shows detailed exhibits about Jewish life in Germany from before the middle ages up to now. Most impressive are its rooms of "Voids" :
the Holocaust Tower
the Memory Void (Installation Shalekhet - Fallen Leaves, by Menashe Kadishman)
"Stolpersteine", stumbling blocks, have been installed in many places on Berlin's walkways to commemorate individual people's lives and the places where they lived or worked.
A very helpful informative guide to these historic places are two books of the "Pastfinder" series by Maik Kopleck , Berlin 1933 -1945 and Berlin 1945 - 1989 with very good historic maps of Berlin.
inside the Asisi-Panorama
Directly opposite Checkpoint Charlie is the noteworthy and sobering Asisi-Panorama, a reconstruction of a part of the wall in pictures from the 1980s with broadcast voices. Two areas of devastating human experiences, of merciless mass murders, so close together in this nowadays rather peaceful city. It seems impossible to fathom, how people not too long ago could twice within less than forty years commit such sins against humanity. The need to belong to a group, to do as everybody does and conform to expectations, is much stronger than the individuals' conscience and rational brain. We see in the occasional outbreak of violence against strangers in all parts of Germany (and elsewhere in the world) that a primeval and animalish Angst can take over. It needs to be addressed rationally and overcome.
Close by, on Lindenstrasse 9 - 14, is the Jewish Museum with its expressive Daniel Libeskind architecture.
It shows detailed exhibits about Jewish life in Germany from before the middle ages up to now. Most impressive are its rooms of "Voids" :
the Holocaust Tower
the Memory Void (Installation Shalekhet - Fallen Leaves, by Menashe Kadishman)
"Stolpersteine", stumbling blocks, have been installed in many places on Berlin's walkways to commemorate individual people's lives and the places where they lived or worked.
A very helpful informative guide to these historic places are two books of the "Pastfinder" series by Maik Kopleck , Berlin 1933 -1945 and Berlin 1945 - 1989 with very good historic maps of Berlin.
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