Day #5: Berlin

TEaster!!!!!!
Happy Easter parents!!! Yesterday those of us going to church woke up early and went to St. Hedwigs Cathedral in Berlin. It was so interesting to see a mass in a different country. It really was super cool to hear it in German. Afterwards we went to get coffee at Balzac and then went to an art fair which was super cool. Then we met up with the other group of kids who slept in (jealous!) and we headed over to the Jewish Museum. 

The Jewish Museum was such an amazing experience. We visited three main exhibits which were extremely powerful. The first I went to was the Garden of Exile.   It had dozens of tall rectangular prisms in it, all of which were at a slight angle on an uneven ground. The effect was dizzying when you walked through. I took this to show how during and after the Holocaust the "norm" for those affected was so off balance, in reality it was far from walking on even ground, it was confusing and scary. 

The next place I visited was called the Tower. It was a cold concrete room, with the highest of roofs and tall walls. The ceiling was black and there was a small window which provided the room with its only source of light. The effect of standing in that room and looking up at the ceiling so far up above is chilling. The whole thing seemed so hopeless, as if standing at the bottom of a well and looking up. There was a heavy metal door that slammed shut and echoed, amplified, in that room. It was so disturbing. 

Lastly we went to the Garden of Leaves, which was a long room filled with hundred of metal faces that you walked upon. The faces were almost cartoonized, they did not resemble real people's features. But every single one had a mouth open in a scream or cry. Walking over these faces, the room clanging as others walked on the faces, was sickening. The feeling of stepping on people is one of the most horrible things I have experienced. 

I think these exhibits were so powerful because they were so sensory. They engaged more than sight, they engaged touch, and balance, and hearing. I thought these were extremely effective. 

The we flew to Poland and had a lovely Easter Dinner yay!

Hi to everyone miss you all!! (Emily B)

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After everyone regrouped following Easter mass, we all walked down to the Judische  Museum. 

On the walk down, I had a discussion with a few other students about one of challenges in learning about the holocaust: our inability to understand and identify with the victims of the war as 'humans' and not just 'victims'. Reading in books, watching videos, we see all the bodies piled up or the emancipated figures, and they seem so far removed from our lives that we can't really imagine them having lives similar to our own before the war. 

I think that the main message among the exhibits, that these peoples' pain was real, but their humanity was real as well. 

There were two exhibits that struck me the most. Fallen Leaves was a single, long, tall room, where the floor was covered in 10,000 hand-cast bronze faces. The faces were about an inch thick, cartoony, just two dots and a mouth that seemed to be open... In a scream? A cry? Open to interpretation. We were encouraged to walk on them, and it was eerie, hearing the bronze clang together in all these discordant tones. We figured out that if we took 100 of these huge rooms, it would only begin to near the number of people who were victims of the war. 

The other exhibit, directly outside, were the pictures taken by a famous Jewish photographer. Seeing these mundane and intimate moments with random people struck me even more. It's not like these pictures were all of holocaust victims or anything. But in that combination with the other exhibit, which dehumanized the victims into these cartoon faces, the contrast in just how relatable, how extremely human these people were, really gave me chills. (Amy Y)

*****

The Holocaust Tower 

On Sunday, we went to the Jewish Museum before leaving for Poland. Generally I'm not moved by memorials. I appreciate them and value the importance of trying to commemorate an event/people, but they never really impact me emotionally. The ones we saw in the museum in Sunday were the exception.    (Ana M)