For me, my expectations for Berlin were distinctly different than those I had for the first two big cities I was able to experience, London and Paris. London and Paris were cities renowned for their history and beauty, and not that Berlin is not, but it simply isn’t thought of as on the same level. As for Berlin, I was most excited to see what remnants remained from World War II and the Nazi regime, as well as how the war and how it was fought by the Germans would be portrayed in the various museums I knew we would be visiting. After experiencing French museums and their glorification of resistance during the war, I was interested to see if in Germany I would see the same thread of glorified resistance, and if the museums we would visit would truly give an unbiased look into what happened in Germany under the Nazis. In this, I was surprised, in a positive way.
After seeing the, in my opinion, total over-glorification of the French resistance, I was very pleased by how the Nazis, their crimes, and those who resisted have been portrayed in Germany. The first museum we visited, and my favorite one in Germany, was the German Historical Museum. The portrayal of the progression of Germany from the Weimar Republic, through the rise of Hitler, World War II, and the end of the war, was not only completely unbiased, but arguably the most thorough and factual display of information I have seen throughout the entire trip.
Among the most powerful experiences of our entire time in Europe has to be our visit to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, situated just outside Berlin in the town of Orienburg. Knowing that most of the concentration camps throughout Nazi-Europe were destroyed totally, it was incredible to see one as preserved as Sachsenhausen. Beginning with the gate, indorned with the iconic “Arbeit Macht Frei”, ironically meaning “work makes you free”, Sachsenhausen was a humbling experience. Although most of the barracks no longer exist, their exact placement in the camp was marked off and made it easy to imagine what the camp once looked like. The hardest part of the camp to see, and the most humbling experience of the trip thus far was walking through where the gas chamber was, and seeing the extremely well preserved crematoria. Knowing I was standing where so many lives ended was chilling. Even more chilling is the thought that amongst all deaths in the Holocaust, Sachsenhausen is truly just a drop in the bucket. Having learned so much about the Holocaust throughout the course of the trip, having been to Wannsee and numerous museums, it brought it all full circle being at Sachsenhausen, and it was an experience I will never forget.