Guten Tag [Quad News] Readers!Quad News here, reporting from Berlin, Germany—anticipating the momentous day that tomorrow represents. For those of you who don’t know what we’re referring to, Nov. 9 represents the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.
Tomorrow, Professor Ives will take the stage with many famous Nobel Peace Laureates and their representatives, such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Hillary Clinton. Ives will be representing Albert Schweitzer, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. While speeches are being made, the crowds will gather in the square and the immediate area to witness this historic day.
Walking around Berlin, where the wall once separated Germany, 1,000 six-foot dominoes, symbolically painted with pictures of peace and the wall line the streets. And at 7 pm, as part of the ceremony, the dominoes will fall as the wall once did. The dominoes are a life-size symbol of hope for the world to have a “domino” effect on world peace.
People and reporters have flocked to the streets to catch a glimpse of the dominoes before the crowds roll in—however, standing on a street corner, one can already hear five or more languages. It seems the crowd is already here.
Today we spent the entire day sight-seeing and museum hopping as a group with Professor Ives, Mrs. Ives and Dean Tursi. We walked around Berlin, bundled up to keep warm despite the nipping wind, when we came upon one of the stretches of the Berlin Wall.
Jenna, Brendan, and Jenn in front of the Berlin WallAfter rounding the corner, we entered the Topography of Terror open-air museum. The museum, which is currently being renovated, is a display of pictures of Berlin during Nazi Germany and World War II. Each picture was accompanied with a caption (conveniently in English as well as German) describing the scene.
“What I found most interesting was my lack of knowledge on the people persecuted during this time. Of course I knew that Jews and gypsies were a target of the Nazi regime, but it’s the others that I never knew about.
• Did you know: a woman who had an ‘attitude’ in her past life was subject to public humiliation, like shaving her head in the town square and walking her around on a leash with a sign?
• Did you know: shop owners were put into concentration camps because they ‘overpriced’ butter, according to the Nazis?
• Did you know: Nazis hung ‘disobedient’ citizens from trees throughout the towns to make an example of them?
Well, I certainly didn’t—at least not until today.”
-Jenna Uliano
On one side of this museum, the Berlin Wall marks the edge of the museum grounds. Construction and demolition separate the wall and the walkway, but adjacent to the path of pictures is the constant reminder of the ever-present past—the Gestapo Headquarters. According to Dean Tursi, our makeshift tour guide, some remnants of buildings that once acted as headquarters are being torn down to ensure that the area remains a place to memorialize the catastrophes and to inform, rather than to act as a shrine for Neo-Nazis to worship.
“Picture this; an open-air museum surrounded by the history and stories that it represents. What moved me the most was standing in front of the pictures and reading all the captions and then turning around to see the same eerie buildings portrayed in the pictures. Although those buildings are currently empty, the emotions and actions associated with the building are still apparent. It gave me chills to see events take place in these buildings portrayed in historical pictures, and then to turn around and see these buildings right before my own eyes. It really lent more meaning to the history of it all to see it right there.”
-Jennifer Swift
After our solemn walk through the “terror” we made our way over to Checkpoint Charlie and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. The museum shows the importance of peace and all different measures people take to obtain freedom. Checkpoint Charlie acted as a border crossing station between East and West Germany and was the central focus of the museum. During the Cold War, this locale was a symbol of demonstrations and protests along the border line.
The Jewish Museum Berlin was the next destination on our journey through history. The museum was a combination of history, tradition, and persecution. Each corridor within the museum represented a different aspect of the Jewish history. From the Nazi dread to the values of the Jewish religion, the museum displayed artifacts, replications, photos and various architectural structures honoring and commemorating the people of Jewish faith.
Berlin has been a whirlwind thus far and with such a significant event tomorrow, we are all preparing for an epic day celebrating with the city.
Tomorrow, all the students are getting together over breakfast to come up with questions for the panel discussions on Tuesday and Wednesday. Brian Wallach, a senior history and mathematics major in the MAT program, will be the group leader for the Albert Schweitzer Institute and meet with other students in the morning to collaborate questions.
“What I found most interesting was my lack of knowledge on the people persecuted during this time. Of course I knew that Jews and gypsies were a target of the Nazi regime, but it’s the others that I never knew about.
• Did you know: a woman who had an ‘attitude’ in her past life was subject to public humiliation, like shaving her head in the town square and walking her around on a leash with a sign?
• Did you know: shop owners were put into concentration camps because they ‘overpriced’ butter, according to the Nazis?
• Did you know: Nazis hung ‘disobedient’ citizens from trees throughout the towns to make an example of them?
Well, I certainly didn’t—at least not until today.”
-Jenna Uliano
On one side of this museum, the Berlin Wall marks the edge of the museum grounds. Construction and demolition separate the wall and the walkway, but adjacent to the path of pictures is the constant reminder of the ever-present past—the Gestapo Headquarters. According to Dean Tursi, our makeshift tour guide, some remnants of buildings that once acted as headquarters are being torn down to ensure that the area remains a place to memorialize the catastrophes and to inform, rather than to act as a shrine for Neo-Nazis to worship.
“Picture this; an open-air museum surrounded by the history and stories that it represents. What moved me the most was standing in front of the pictures and reading all the captions and then turning around to see the same eerie buildings portrayed in the pictures. Although those buildings are currently empty, the emotions and actions associated with the building are still apparent. It gave me chills to see events take place in these buildings portrayed in historical pictures, and then to turn around and see these buildings right before my own eyes. It really lent more meaning to the history of it all to see it right there.”
-Jennifer Swift
After our solemn walk through the “terror” we made our way over to Checkpoint Charlie and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. The museum shows the importance of peace and all different measures people take to obtain freedom. Checkpoint Charlie acted as a border crossing station between East and West Germany and was the central focus of the museum. During the Cold War, this locale was a symbol of demonstrations and protests along the border line.
The Jewish Museum Berlin was the next destination on our journey through history. The museum was a combination of history, tradition, and persecution. Each corridor within the museum represented a different aspect of the Jewish history. From the Nazi dread to the values of the Jewish religion, the museum displayed artifacts, replications, photos and various architectural structures honoring and commemorating the people of Jewish faith.
Berlin has been a whirlwind thus far and with such a significant event tomorrow, we are all preparing for an epic day celebrating with the city.
Tomorrow, all the students are getting together over breakfast to come up with questions for the panel discussions on Tuesday and Wednesday. Brian Wallach, a senior history and mathematics major in the MAT program, will be the group leader for the Albert Schweitzer Institute and meet with other students in the morning to collaborate questions.
Where's your Monday post? I want to know what you saw during the celebrations...
ReplyDelete