Czech Please.: December 6th, 2013

And so begins my second to last weekend in Europe; so much sadness and happiness, so many emotions.... Our trip began with a long six hour bus ride but we finally made it to Berlin! Our trip began with a walking/bus tour. I have never been so thankful for a bus ride in my life. It was far below freezing and wind with snow that felt like needles, it was not a fun time. The tour was really good though besides the freezing cold. Our first stop was the the ground above where the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. Now, it is a parking lot with a sign. We then walked for bit until we came to the biggest Jewish holocaust memorial in Europe. It was really different but I thought it was amazingly well done. The way our guide described the memorial is that is a reflection of the holocaust. You go into with your family and friends, but slowly you get broken up and lost. You can't see anyone and you feel alone. It's a powerful experience, but even more so was what we saw as we drove away. In a passing note the guide pointed out the memorial to the LGBT people who lost their lives during the holocaust. The memorial was across the street and slightly hidden in the trees. Our guide said this was done on purpose, not as a disrespect to the LGBT people but to make a statement. The memorial is like the Jewish one but just one large pillar that is slightly tilted. Our guide said it is like this because the LGBT community feels like their experience in the holocaust is being ignored or hidden from the world hence it being hidden in the trees. It is also is the same as the other blocks because the LGBT community feels the same as everyone else, but they are not treated the same. The memorial in general was sad, but it was something that really hit close to home.

(Spot Where Hitler Committed Suicide)

(Berlin)

"The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial, is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 m2 site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The stelae are 2.38 m long, 0.95 m wide and vary in height from 0.2 to 4.8 m. According to Eisenman's project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. A 2005 copy of the Foundation for the Memorial's official English tourist pamphlet, however, states that the design represents a radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial, partly because Eisenman did not use any symbolism. However, observers have noted the memorial's resemblance to a cemetery. An attached underground "Place of Information" holds the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims, obtained from the Israeli museum Yad Vashem."

(Jewish Holocaust Memorial)

"The homosexual victims of Nazism were not officially recognized after 1945. During 1950s and 1960s, Paragraph 175 was still part of the German penal code. In the 1980s, these "forgotten victims" were finally discussed. In 1985, for instance, president Richard von Weizsäcker remembered homosexuals as a "victim group". The group Der homosexuellen NS-Opfer gedenken and the organization Lesben- und Schwulenverband began promoting a memorial in Berlin in 1993. On 12 December 2003, the Bundestag approved the erection of a memorial in Berlin at the boundary of Tiergarten (near the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe). Then the competition for artists started. Politicians attending the 27 May 2008 dedication included Berlin's Mayor Klaus Wowereit, President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Thierse, German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann, Volker Beck and Renate Künast. Mayor Wowereit gave the opening speech for the memorial. Following its dedication, it was frequently vandalized that year."

(LGBT Memorial Online Pic)

After the Jewish memorial we made a quick stop by the Brandenburg gate before heading off the Check Point Charlie. This is the most famous checkpoint between former east and west Berlin. Normally you can get a picture with the guards but surprise, surprise, even they did not want to be out in the freezing cold weather. If they had been there I would have been tempted to get my actually passport stamped, but I feel like they may have caused some problems with me getting back into the US. After checkpoint Charlie we wandered around Berlin and saw a few more of the must see sights before we headed off to...any guesses, anyone? A Christmas market! You can never have enough Christmas markets. After eating a waffle covered in cherries at the Christmas market and then proceeding to spill said cherries down my coat and into my purse, we decided to head to a chocolate factory. It's a chocolate factory so obviously it was amazing. We then headed back for the night on Berlin's endlessly confusing public transit. While on the subway, tram, metro, whatever it is called, we were practicing our amazing German skills, which consisted of us saying "hello," "thank you," "one beer please," and "gluten free," in German. The man who was standing near us gave us a look like we were crazy people and then slowly walked away from us. Germans love us. We headed in for the night and slept so, so soundly.

"The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate, rebuilt in the late 18th century as a neoclassical triumphal arch, and now one of the most well-known landmarks of Germany. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was fully restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin (Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation). During the post-war Partition of Germany, the gate was isolated and inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall, and the area around the gate featured most prominently in the media coverage of the opening of the wall in 1989. Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events and is today considered a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace."

(Brandenburg Gate)

(American Embassy)

"Checkpoint Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. GDR leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and maneuvered to get the Soviet Union's permission for the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop Eastern Bloc emigration westward through the Soviet border system, preventing escape across the city sector border from East Berlin to West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961."

(Checkpoint Charlie)

"The Bebelplatz is known as the site of one of the infamous Nazi book burning ceremonies held in the evening of 10 May 1933 in many German university cities. The book burnings were initiated and hosted by the rather nationalist German Student Association thus stealing a march on the National Socialist German Students' League. At the Student Association's invitation Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels held an inflammatory speech. Besides other spectators, the book burning was also attended by members of the Nazi Students' League, the SA, SS and Hitler Youth groups. They burned around 20,000 books, including works by Heinrich Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and many other authors."

(Bebelplatz)

(Our Tour Guides Dog Who Chased a Boy on a Scooter)

(Bebelplatz Memorial to the Book Burning)

"The Neue Wache memorial has been the main memorial site for the victims of war and tyranny since 1993. The building, which was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel as a memorial to those who had fallen in the Napoleonic wars, was built between1816 and 1818 on the boulevard Unter den Linden. From 1818 to 1918, the Royal Guard was stationed here. In 1931, Heinrich Tessenow created a memorial for those who had fallen in World War I. Shortly before the end of World War II, the Neue Wache memorial was severely damaged by bombs. After 1960, the restored building in East Berlin served as a "memorial to the victims of fas-cism and militarism" which housed an eternal flame. In 1969, the remains of an unknown soldier and an unknown concentration camp prisoner were buried there, surrounded by earth taken from the battlefields of World War II and from concentration camps. Until 1990, on every Wednesday an honour guard marched in front of this memorial. After German reunification, the Neue Wache became the "Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Tyranny." In the centre of the memorial space there stands the large sculpture "Mother with her Dead Son" by Käthe Kollwitz."