Day 2: Berlin

We began our day at the German History Museum, where Olaf contextualized the history of nationalism in Germany, which had its origins in 1806 when Napoleon defeated the Germans. During the years 1826-1845, due to the Industrial Revolution, the German population rose from 23 million to 32.7 million. Jews and others moved from the country farms into cities to find factory jobs. Jews, who were educated, literate, cosmopolitan and engaged in commerce, desired to assimilate into German society.




The Jews loved German culture for its music, art, and literature.  Olaf explained that Germans, such as composer Richard Wagner, held the view that a "true" German was like a tree- a German could only develop from roots that were fully Germanic . He did not believe that famous German composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was truly German. Although his father had converted to Christianity from Judiasm and Felix was Christian from birth, his roots were Jewish.  For Germans who shared Wagner's beliefs, even though Jews were granted citizenship in 1871 with the establishment of the constitutional monarchy in Germany, Jews would never be Germans.

We spent the next hour in the Otto Weidt Workshop for the Blind. In this factory, the blind and deaf employees made brooms and brushes out of horse hair and pig hair for the war effort. Otto Weidt also employed Jews in his factory and used the Berlin Work Act to legally keep employing his Jewish workers during the war.  Eventually he hid eleven Jews in three hideouts inside the workshop.  

After an outdoor lunch, we walked to the Rosenstrasse Memorial. This site recognizes the brave Christian women whose Jewish husbands and children were arrested during the Factory Action in February of 1943, when the Nazis swept through Berlin in their efforts to make it "Jew Free". These women, whose husbands and children were being kept in the former Jewish Community Center on Rosenstrasse, stood outside in an unarmed, quiet protest, demanding the

release of their families. Despite machine-gun-armed Nazi efforts to make the protesters go away, they did not give up. Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda decided to release their husbands to prevent a public relations nightmare and to prevent additional protests. 

Enjoying the beautiful sunshine, 70 degree temperature and blooming flowers, we slowly walked to the memorial for the 55,000 Jewish people from Berlin killed during the Holocaust.  Located on what Olaf called "the street of tolerance," nicknamed for the proximity of this Jewish landmark to the Lutheran church and Catholic hospital, this memorial stands where formerly a synagogue and Jewish school were located, and next to a cemetary where Jews were buried from 1671 until 1877.  We viewed the grave of the famous Moses Mendelssohn, who immigrated to Berlin in the 1740's and is known for extablishing the Jewish school for boys and beginning the assimilation movement at the end of the 18th century.

Outside of the cemetary further down the "street of tolerance," Olaf pointed out the memorial "stumbling" stones that are embedded in the sidewalks throughout Berlin which the students had not noticed before. These stones commemorate the Jews who lived in Berlin, and tell their date of birth, what date and where they were deported, and their fate.

From here, we went to the New Synagogue, which was opened in 1866. The architecture resembles the Alhambra in Grenada, Spain, with its Moorish architecture.  The first female rabbi in the world served in this synagogue in the years leading to the Holocaust and was later deported to Terezin and killed at Auschwitz. Bombed in November of 1943, the synagogue laid in ruins until the fall of the Berlin Wall, when it was renovated.  Now the gold dome shines in the sun as a landmark of Berlin and houses the Jewish Community Center of Berlin, where the Jewish population consists mainly of Russian and Ukrainian Jews, older Holocaust survivors who were born in Poland, and Israelis.

Student Reflections:
Group 1:

Dana, Nicole, Shane, Trevor and Sarah write: 
An authentic memorial is impactful because it allows us to step inside the shoes of real people.  Standing inside Otto´s workshop, surrounded by the same walls as Alice and Inge, enabled us to empathize with the reality of fear and uncertainty that they lived with every day.  Being able to stand where people stood who didn´t know if they would survive another week was surreal as none of us have ever had to fear for our lives every hour of every day.

Yesterday, visiting the commemorative Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, we were at first unsure about how to feel.  We soon realized we could contemplate individually what it meant to each of us.  The rows of stones, called stelae, pushed us to open our minds and think about all possible interpretations

Group 2:

Kiefer, Jane, Raquel, Matt, and Nick write:

Otto Weidt's factory for the blind and the Memorial for Murdered European Jews in Berlin's center commemorate the Holocaust and its victims in very different ways. After visiting numerous memorials and authentic sites, we felt that Otto Weidt´s factory portrayed a personal connection to the Holocaust in a more effective manner.  While in the exhibition, all who visited were quiet and respectful and absorbed the true meaning of the room.  The experience of the hiding place was enhanced by the authenticity of the place and the personal connections we made with the narrative.

Group 3:
Tara, Greg, Mackenzie, Gayle and Kyle write:

The Rosenstrasse Memorial deeply affected most of our group members. This memorial was about a group of Christian women in Berlin protesting together to get their Jewish husbands back.  The majority of the husbands were returned in the end.  These women, held at gunpoint, were doing something brave, and, at any point, they could have died.  Yet, they chose to stay, and that courage struck us. In Otto´s factory, our guide explained the story of a man who had hidden Jews and risked his life to provide for others.  We were able to connect the small details of everyday life with the actual hardship of hiding.

Olaf and the students at the Fifth Annual Peace Wall in Berlin