Day #3: Buchenwald

At Buchenwald

Day #3: Bernburg and Weimar

Today we went to the Bernburg Psychiatric Hospital, where thousands of people with disabilities were euthanized. It was kind of a frightening experience because the hospital is located in the most picturesque town, where it seems like nothing of that nature could ever happen. It's so tragic that so many lives were cut short, because they were deemed "unworthy" by others. The thing that stuck out to me the most was the fact that one of the doctors who assisted with ~9000 murders and experimented on the bodies only served a year and a half in prison. It is really scary to think that people really weren't held responsible and they basically got away with these crimes. Today, the hospital is still functional and I couldn't ever imagine sending a family member there. While it is good that people are being serviced, I think that the history of the hospital still overshadows what they are doing now. (Fiona F)


Remnants of Euthanasia

When you walk down the stairs of a psychiatric hospital and step through the doors of a gas chamber, history suddenly becomes real and far too up close and personal. When you see the faces of people who died because of 'euthanasia', that's when you realize how much this matters. Seeing the pictures of people who died at Bernburg is what makes you care about keeping the memory of their deaths alive, and making sure we remember not only the Jews of the Holocaust, but the disabled and other lesser known victims.

What really shocked me was the story of Dr. Bunke, so-called "accomplice" to Bernburg's euthanasia program. He was tried in a lower court for the murders he committed, and received four years in prison - a more than lenient and unjust sentence to begin with - but then in a higher court his sentence was lowered to three years, because the excuse of sick leaves and such meant he didn't kill as many people as he could have, making him responsible for the deaths of 9,000 people. Three years for murdering 9,000 people. Well, not quite murdering - he never turned on the gas, he was never responsible. Of course not. Three years for helping to murder 9,000 people. 

What the hell is that?  (Jane Z)

I don't know. I don't have much to say but that was a very intense experience. It was unsettling and we went in to the actual showers where patients were euthanized. The hospital in front is also still operating. I don't know how I feel about this. That was very heavy and moving. (Elizabeth H-B)


A few hours ago, I stood in a gas chamber in Bernburg where they packed disabled people in, and sometimes watched through a window. The building was kept up, the hospital around was functioning, healing people. Some of the victims really believed it was showers, that they were going to wash and leave and be taken to rooms and treated. Instead, they were taken out, and in the next room some were laid out on tables. The staff took out some of their brains, and sent them to Berlin. 

Death is not pretty. Death is not neat. 

It was the same checkered floor, the same tiles on the walls. All clean, neat. Teenagers died there. Children. Their disabilities ranged from severe to fabricated by authorities. Did it matter in that room, who was sick and who was not? Maybe it didn't. Maybe it did. 

(Anyone could panic, locked in there with carbon monoxide. Anyone could go mad.)

Many of the nurses were trained to help mentally and physically ill people. All of the workers had to watch a gassing before they worked, and they were asked if they could handle it, and all of them, all of them said yes. What did it mean to them? Like it is now, people were actually being treated just a dozen or so meters away. Mental illnesses were being treated in that hospital, and are now. 

Even now, it is hard to breathe in the basement. I held my breath a bit unconsciously, imagining the suffocation, and then I caught myself and tried to breathe deeply, and just couldn't. It felt wrong to fill my lungs in a place where people suffocated violently--and then even breathing normally was not enough oxygen. 

The air in Germany in the green spaces (which are common), especially, the air is pure and fresh, with just a hint of flowers. Spring is here, and the lilacs are in bloom. In Grunewald and Wannsee, there was some of the best fresh air. It was the air equivalent of water fresh out of a mountain spring. There is so much green, which is a large change after this long winter.

In this basement, though, there was not enough oxygen.  (Debbie J) 

We visited the "hospital" that victims of the Holocaust were sent to today. Basically, this was the last location those people took their last breath at. The idea of how such evil had taken place in history is horrific. Our tour guide, Oliver, said something quite reassuring and heartwarming though. He said, "it's important for me to learn about this history" despite the fact of never learning about things like forceful sterilization in school. It just gives me hope that other people realize that these things and these people deserve to be remembered.  (My-Ngan T)

Walking out of the gas chamber in the basement of this hospital, I realized that I have battling feelings about the current existence of the many Nazi affiliated areas and buildings in Europe. For example, my primary association with the Euthanasia center was: "This place is evil." Should evil places like this be allowed to exist? I don't yet have my own answer to that question... Or, from the opposite perspective, is this just a place where evil things happened? Should we not associate evil events with the places that they occurred? After all, In the words of Mr. Topf, these places only "Inherited" their notoriety, it's not directly their fault...

How important is it to preserve these "places where evil things happened?"

...This is what I'm struggling with. (Hannah M)

Visiting the euthanasia center was, as expected, quite heavy. Since I had did my project on the disabled and what had happened in the hospital, I was familiar with some of what we saw. But stepping into the gas chamber, with original tiles.... So should this be a hospital? It's hard because I feel like it should be closed. Someone wondered if it's a place where evil things happened and ind now I'm starting to lean towards this idea..because it's helping people now.. And I think this was the most effective memorial so far. I couldn't even take pictures because it was something I just had to stay and process.  (Rakabe A)

Everything is greener here. 

It seems like all the colors are more vibrant. Even the grass is a deeper color. It almost makes me wish I had invested in a fancier camera! But even then I don't think the scope of it would've come out in a picture anyway. I think one of the things that makes Germany seem so pretty (the countryside at least) is that the fields seem to stretch on forever. Pictures don't do it justice. Sorry! You guys should visit Germany anyway. 

It's almost ironic to think that such horrible things happened in a place so pretty. When we were walking towards the hospital where thousands of disabled people were killed unjustly by what the nazis said was "pneumonia" or some other fabricated disease, I almost wanted it to be dark and gloomy and depressing. But there were flowers everywhere. It was so beautiful, and it's still a functioning hospital (a psychiatric hospital of all things). As much as they've done to preserve the history of what happened here, and i think they've done a pretty good job so far, you can really tell by being in Germany how it's important for life to go on too. It's something is never really thought about in depth before. I have to say, though, although I understand the practical reasons for keeping this building as a hospital, I don't think it should be a psychiatric hospital. That hits too close to home. I would not want to have my mental disabled family member treated in the same complex where he/she would've been euthanized a couple decades before for the same symptoms. It makes sense for it to be a hospital. It's always been a hospital. But I'd feel better if it were just a regular general hospital or something. 

I'm really glad I got to walk through the gas chambers, as chilling an experience as it was. It really put everything we've learned in perspective, which in a weird way made it easier for me to understand things. It made me much more sad to actually stand where people were killed than to simply read facts, which I think is a good thing. I should be sad, and I want to get the most authentic experience possible. I have a feeling lots of this trip is going to make me sad. 

But before the parents think everything about this trip is depressing (hi mom), we've also been having a lot of fun. The Olympic stadium was really cool! I'm sure lots of others have blogged about that. (Sylvie S)

Bussing it
As everyday on this trip, today was extremely busy. After a long, early morning bus ride, we arrived at Bernburg euthanasia center. This is where about 14,000 people who the Nazis considered "disabled" were murdered. After our tour guide (who insisted her English wasn't good even though it was better than I could ever dream to be in a foreign language) explained to us some facts with a power point, we followed the path followed by those killed there, who would all die the day they got there. We stopped in the gas chamber, where we were reminded 14,000 people were murdered where we stood. All of it was still original, from the tiles to the shower head. Safe to say I felt sick to my stomach. I breathed a lot easier after we left that room. It was the first stop on this trip that really hit me with its horrificness. Part of the shock was probably the fact that I would've expected this from a concentration camp, and for the first horror at the camp to not be from one was just so unexpected.

And of course, later in the day we experienced a concentration camp as well. The weather eerily followed what we were doing for the rest of the day. At Buchenwald, it was cloudy and drizzly with patches of sun, then began to downpour. It was chilly and in general unpleasant, but only a reminder of how this was nothing compared to what the in mates of the camp suffered, especially in the dead of winter with their cotton uniforms. 

As we went into downtown Weimer, however, the sun broke through and shone over this adorable quaint town. Just as you imagine classic Germany: that is Weimer. We took a stroll through the town to wait for our dinner reservations, snapping touristy pictures. Our dinner was absolutely delicious, and included not only ice cream but the big reveal of the "#flynning" tshirts we were all wearing with a picture of the one and only Mr. Flynn on them. (I think he loved them). 

Now we're on our way back to the hotel, enjoying a showing of "Shrek" and some beautiful scenery of the Roman countryside. (-Emily C.)

Germany is Beautiful

I lean my head against the window of the bus and try to regain a steady breathing pattern after leaving the hospital where we saw the gas chambers and crematoria for the disabled. I haven't traveled that much, and the majority of my travels have been in the United States. While the West is beautiful, there is just something about driving through the German countryside that takes my breath away. This may be the most beautiful place I've ever been (maybe that will change with Poland and Prague, I don't know). The luscious green fields and miles of bright yellow flowers broken up by quaint towns with golden church spires poking out and clusters of windmills are incredible to take in. It's nice that on a trip this heavy filled with such sad and depressing sites we get to take a break and just stare out the window at the natural beauty that has remained in this place, regardless of the ugly human history.

(Nora C(am...)

Buchenwald

We visited Buchenwald this afternoon just a couple hours after being at the euthanasia center...our heaviest day so far for me. The guide at Buchenwald told us that because we were essentially on a mountain, the weather was usually harsh and changed quickly. This proved to be very true. It poured rain, hailed, and then was sunny all in the couple hours that we were there. The cold and gray felt very fitting. We toured the memorial/museum and walked through the crematorium with big ovens where corpses were burned as well as the basement where over 1000 people were hung. We were ready to leave.

Now we are on the bus heading to dinner. People have cheered up and we are all laughing.

Our bus driver just narrowly avoided hitting a tiny car ( the cars are so small here!!) and we are all clapping. Well done bus driver.

We are tired and hungry and still drying off but somehow we all seem pretty content. I hope everyone at home is doing well. :).   (Nora C(oll)

Day #2: Berlin

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We woke this morning to a breakfast of meat, Brie, and the best bread on the face of this earth. On the fifth floor of our hotel, I could feel the sunshine beaming through the wide spanning windows, relieved that it was going to be a wonderful day to walk all over the city. Today we spent hours walking through many different Nazi historic sites, snapping pictures of buildings that look so "normal." However, knowing that a concrete block of a building was once the Ministry of Propaganda during the Nazi regime gives all of these sites layers and layers of meaning. It makes me wonder how truly aware average Berliners are of all of the history that surrounds them. It was a great day walking all around the city... But it's only the beginning! (Hannah M)


Beautiful Berlin 
This being my first time ever across the Atlantic I am just stunned by the city. Berlin is both magnificent and unique. It rivals even Boston with its historical dominance, being so much more recent. Memorials are abundant, yet not always effective. For example, when we visited the Murdered Jews of Europe memorial, it was powerful and isolated, but not effective apparently, because there were kids and adults believe it or not climbing on and within the pillars. This emotional defilement did detract. From the experience. Don't these people get that it is not a place to play hide and seek? Other than these curiosities, I've been having an amazing time in Europe for the first time.  (Daniel W)

Adventure in Berlin 
Yesterday we explored the streets of Berlin and it was so much. We saw so many amazing sites and museum. This city is so beautiful! We got to see Hitler's bunker and many important Nazi sites. The memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe was amazing but sadly people were being disrespectful. 

I still can't believe I am in Germany, it is so surreal. Germans really enjoy Italian food I learned. I bought a piece of the Berlin Wall and avoided many a pick pocket. This trip is so much fun! (Daisy M)

Best tour guide in Berlin
Yesterday morning, as tired as we all were from jet lag and lack of sleep, we experienced, in my opinion, one of the best tours in Berlin, full of historical cultural information, by one of the greatest tour guides. Not only was she hilarious, but she brought the Nazi history to life and talked about the cultural effects Nazi Germany has had on today's German people and the emergence of neo-Nazi groups in Germany today. 

The most amazing building we went to was the the ministry of propaganda building. Seeing it first hand after hearing and talking about the different types of propaganda used during nazi Germany was surreal. The tour guide could not stress enough how important this building was and how it was an essential part in propagating the holocaust. This was the beginning to a great and eventful day, which I will never forget. Thank you Arja - one of the best tour guides ever! (Minas Z)

So far, Europe has exceeded my expectations. We've had a weeks worth of sight-seeing in only two days, which is awesome yet tiring at the same time, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty disappointed to find that they drive on the same side of the street as us and that all European boys are prettier than me, but overall, I'm having a pretty good time so far.

While we were touring Berlin, we saw that Hitler's bunker where he died is now the parking lot of an apartment building. Even though it made me angry, I felt more indifferent about it, because Berlin covers up so much of their history through half-assed memorials or none at all, but at the same time, as much as we want to Face this History, the city and the country is trying not to dwell on their history. Ms. Freeman was right about it being difficult to like the city of Berlin, because as much as we want those who were killed to be remembered, it would be really difficult to move past it all. I'm excited to see the rest of what this trip has to offer...(Kate C)

Pergamon Altar
Guten tag from Berlin! We're having a great trip so far it's a lot of walking but it's totally worth it. Yesterday we went to the Pergamon Museum and we saw the Ishtar Gate and the Pergamon Altar. They were both incredible. The Ishtar Gate was a gigantic blue castle-like entrance with beautiful designs of  unicorns. It was magical. One of the seven wonders of the world and we just walked through it (eep). Next, we gazed upon the ancient beauty that was the outside of the Pergamon Altar. Steep stairs, getting reprimanded by the security, it was all worth it. There were individual engravings of each God or Goddess and scenes depicting their adventures. It was so incredible you kinda had to just sit in silence for a bit to take it all in. On the inside we saw sculptures of people performing tasks and a floor mosaic with a parakeet. It was classic Greek. 

The enormity of the pillars and the sculptures of the gods made it feel like a very spiritual place. It was very powerful. We were just in awe. Everything was so detailed... The ancient Greeks had very nicely sculpted bottoms! Hahah! But no in all seriousness we witnessed two of the wonders of the world in one day. It was so much to take in but it would have been easy to sit there all day. So glad we went! Can't wait for more adventures, until next time!  (Jessica K & Ariadne A)

We are having a great time and we are relatively healthy and happy. Berlin has been a lot of fun; the food is great and the nightlife is on point 🎉. Our first night here, a few of us ate at a delicious taqueria (not German at all). There are substantial opportunities for good food in a close proximity to the Hotel Transit, our quaint but modern host for our time in Berlin. Also, most of the people here have at least some knowledge of English, so communication has been pretty easy, but we are learning a lot at the same time (danke shoen, bitte, ausgang, etc.). In fact, some of us have already formed a German gang, notorious on the streets of Berlin. The AusgänG generally breaks rules; they can be found jaywalking, stepping in the bike lane, and leaving ominous notes under the doors of innocent guests at the Hotel Transit. 

Our breakfast each morning is in a common room by the hotel lobby. We are given multiple options of breads. There is also fruit salad, chocolate cake, cereals, deli meats, and warm drinks available.  The rooms of our hotel consist of 4-6 students, with not a lot, but just enough room. There have been reports of flooding in multiple bathrooms, but we won't go there...🌊 The 4th floor rooms which we are staying in wrap around two courtyards, so we can see each other out the windows. It's great for paper airplanes, dance-offs, and late-night communication. 

Yesterday we went to the official European memorial to the murdered Jews of the Holocaust. The memorial is in the middle of Berlin, behind the US embassy and near the site of the Berlin Wall. A large plot of land without any buildings on it, the memorial stands out in the middle of the city. The layout of the memorial and the museum underneath it imitates a graveyard. At ground level, there are 2,711 concrete, coffin-like rectangular prisms making up the "Field of Stellae."  None of them have any writing on them - no names, no dates, nothing - and no two blocks are the same. They all have the same width and length, but they vary in height, and the ground in the center of the "graveyard" rises above and falls below street level in different places. Visitors can walk through the grid of this "graveyard" and get lost in it's depths. The memorial itself is chilling if you can look past the little French punks who occupy themselves in the 19000 square meter plot of land by playing tag, shooting each other with imaginary guns, smoking cigarettes, and jumping across the tops of the Stellae. 

On one end of the graveyard is a staircase that leads under the ground, into the "graves" represented by the concrete blocks. Below the surface is the information centre for the memorial. This museum is a series of 4 or 5 rooms; the 3 in the middle are the most emotional. Each room conveys a similar message in a different way, but all of them keep the graveyard theme in mind. If you enter the museum and look up at the ceiling, you see the same rectangle shapes of the graves which lie directly above you. It is dark and quiet, and you feel like you are in the same graves as the victims. In the first room, the rectangle shaped graves are almost projected from the ceiling onto screens in the floor, each of which shows a direct quote from the records of a Holocaust victim and a brief explanation of his or her life and the circumstances of his or her death. These people are mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons of all different ages. Out of all the quotes in the room, there was only one survivor represented. His block was the furthest from the entrance to the room. In the next room, the grave aspect continues, this time representing the stories of whole families. The graves in this room are rectangular prisms that hang from the ceiling as extensions of the Stellae above them. Each hanging grave shares details about the lives and stories of various families who died in the Holocaust. In the third room, there is even less light. A victim's name is projected onto the wall while a brief summary of his or her life is read through a speaker. Each summary takes about 30 seconds; the idea of this room, explained by a blurb on the wall, is that if one were to consecutively read the names and summaries of every single victim of the Holocaust, the entire process would take over 6 years. Going to this museum was a unique and moving experience. I appreciated it more than any other memorial that we have seen on our trips. (Liam O, Tyrone N)

Day #1: Berlin

On the plane ride to Berlin I sat next to a German woman and her daughter. They lived in Dachau and were visiting Berlin for the next couple of days. The woman's father had grown up in Germany during the war, he was 17 in 1945. School was cancelled because kids were told they had to fight but her father ran away because as she put it, "it was a stupid war". Her husband was a south Vietnamese immigrant who had escaped from a North Vietnamese prison camp at the end of the war. He was able to get on a boat to the Philippines where he lived until 1979. 

I found out that Germany, and Berlin in particular has a large Vietnamese population. After the Wall was put up the West started bringing in a lot of Turkish workers so to compete East Berlin brought in tons of Vietnamese workers. I just think it's so interesting because you would never think that Germany would have a large Vietnamese population. Also, that's one of the reasons I love traveling; you get to hear people's stories' and they can be just fascinating.  (Michael K)

The Olympic Stadium
Although I was jet lagged and hadn't slept in what seemed like days, I was really excited to go to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the home of the 1936 Olympic Games and Hertha BSC of the Bundesliga. It was a really cool experience to be in the same stadium that Jesse Owens and Usain Bolt set world records but also to be in the home of a top-flight, European football club. Our tour guide, Tim, was an absolute beast, because although he has lived in Germany his entire life, he is a massive American Football fan and has watched almost every Super Bowl since 1982. The stadium itself was pretty awesome, it has hot tubs, a golden chapel, and the room where Zinedine Zidane sat, after he head butted Materazzi, during the 2006 World Cup Final. Although the stadium has been rebuilt many times, I did enjoy the fact that they left a lot of the Nazi sculptures standing, because I respect the fact that Germans feel that it is necessary to come to terms with their history, even though most of them strongly resent it. --(Bill H)

The Berlin Olympic stadium was sooooo cool. The inside was awesome with a huge field and seating for upto 100000. My tour guide Tim was super sassy and revealed to us that he actually hates soccer but loves American Football.  To be quite honest I was really sad we weren't allowed onto the track or field, for as a track team member myself I wanted to run the same track Jesse Owens "won Hitler's Olympics" on. But it was really cool to see the field and go into all the VIP boxes and guests of honor rooms. All in all it was a great tour and the Hertha BSC have the best hot tub in Deutschland in their locker room. (Emily B)

Day 3 Weimar

Celebrating Mr Flynn

Day #1 and #2: Berlin

It was impossible to post blog entries for day #1 thanks to a combination of jet lag and exhaustion.  After a rocky start at Logan Airport--thank you Lufthansa computer system!--we raced to board our flight to Munich, swiftly making a connecting flight and arriving in Berlin shortly after noon.   Our group perfected the fine art of the count off--48 in less than 40 seconds---and we took off for our first stop: Track 17 in the Gruenewald area of western Berlin, where most of the Jews deported from Berlin, after being trucked here from other parts of the city, were packed on railway cars and sent east, mostly to Auschwitz or Theresienstadt.  The memorial at this site---simple plaques running in chronological  order  along both sides of the track--tell a chilling tale.  Day after day, trains left: 1000 Jews, 750 Jews, 500 Jews, 1100 Jews.  This is one of the most affluent areas of Berlin.   Beautiful homes flank the ramp leading to the tracks.   Commuters go in and out of this station at all hours.   Is it possible that no one knew what was happening or wondered where all of these people were headed?

Our next stop was the lakeside Wannsee Villa, where in January 1942, Reinhard Heydrich led a meeting with mid-tier Nazi officials met to decide pm what they referred to as the "final solution to the Jewish question."  Today it's an educational center and museum of sorts in a breathtaking site.  How could so,etching so heinous be decided in a place like this?

Today's itinerary was mostly on the outskirts of Berlin, designed to take maximum advantage of the bus we had!  Our next stop was the Olympic Stadium, site of the 1936 Olympics, in the early years if the Nazi regime.  A big propaganda coup for the Nazis, the stadium is a prime example of Fascist architecture.  We were taken all over, from the jacuzzi in the locker room to the VIPseats.   It was impressive.

Our final stop was at the Bayerisches Viertel (Bavarian quarter), with its discreet set of signs noting actions that slowly ate away at the Jewish residents of this part of town.  We also saw several Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) marking the homes of former mJewish residents in the quarter whose lives ended under the Nazis.

Needless to say we were all grateful to arrive at our hotel, skillfully choreograph a luggage brigade in the elevator, troop up the five flights, and check in.  After a quick local dinner, everyone headed to bed.

More tomorrow; the students were asked to work on blog entries about today in their rooms tonight.

PS: it seems that all the ATM snafus have either been worked out or we have gone to the money buddy system.  If you are a parent ferrying or helping with this, many thanks! (Ms Freeman)

Two more days until we leave for Eastern Europe.  

Parents and readers of this blog: please bookmark this site.  We will posting descriptions of what we are doing on the trip on a regular (nearly daily) basis, along with comments and photographs and (if it works) video clips! 

Also parents and readers: feel free to post a comment before we depart on Tuesday so that we (a) know you can read this and (b) know that you know how to post a comment in response to what you read here. 

We hope we will hear from you; it's always nice for students and chaperones to read/hear from you all while we are feverishly recording impressions and updating on this blog!