The Cold War, AJC, Holocaust

The Reichstag Sees River

We went on a 3 hour bus tour around Berlin this morning with a very nice (and good-looking) guide. He showed us much more of Berlin than I expected. The streets and cityscape reminded me more of DC than any place I've been to. It's very flat with wide open streets that go straight and curve around with several circles. I kept looking out to see if perhaps one of these days I could go for a nice run without getting killed in this constant traffic. The traffic wasn't too bad. The guide pointed out all the important government buildings including the Reichstag.

We made our first stop at a monument dedicated to... oh, I forgot. There wasn't a sign nearby in English to stick in my visual memory.

Then we visited the Berlin Wall! It was totally different from what I expected. I thought the wall would be really, really high in a way it'd be impossible to escape. It wasn't that high, maybe only 10 feet of stone and tightly wounded barbed wire along the top. There was an outdoor museum for the area called Topography of Terror. The reason why it's outdoor is because nobody got the project moving or completed even though it was started way back in early 1990s after the Wall came down. The reason for the name of "Topography of Terror" was that the buildings around it was essentially the heart of the Reich. This was where Himmler, Heyreich, and their assistants held their jobs. This was where the SS Police used to be. It's a bit chilling to see those former Nazi white buildings still standing by. I can't even imagine what it must be like to work in the exact same rooms as these men.

This is one of the many, many plaques placed on the perimeter of the inner wall around West Berlin. You can actually follow them by foot.

Nearby was "Checkpoint Charlie," the major Allied checkpoint mainly for foreigners and Allied security forces. The significance of this was that it was the official separation of East and West Berlin. We made a pit stop there and I ended up using all of my time there looking for an ATM machine which was literally inside an outside wall... ugh. (For some reason, my mind kept thinking about Israel where there were Change places everywhere for changing cash!).

The tour guide gave us a history lesson of the Soviet rule in East Berlin and East Germany. Essentially, the life was exactly the same as living in the Soviet Union whether you're in Moscow or Volgagrad. Germans couldn't trust anyone as spies just were everywhere. When the Russians and German police finally declassified the files- the Germans were shocked to know that they each had a file on them filled with comments from their families and friends. Lena knew somebody who lost his mother shortly after he read his file and saw negative comments from his mother and just couldn't be there with her when she passed away. I'll mention, from my Russian history class, that honestly, the Russians (as I assume probably same goes for Germans under this rule) did not trust anyone except for their closest and bestest friends, they didn't trust their families.

Afterward, we continued our journey around Berlin. This picture is Bebeplatz- one of the many plazas around Berlin. There is a small ice skating rink on the left. I noticed that the rented ice skates looked far more like rollerblades- only with metal blades along the bottom of the sole.

This site had a dark fact- this was here the book-burning was held during Nazi regime.

When the tour ended, we got going to Dr. Pruin's seminar on Jewish and Christian texts... some theology class. I was so jetlagged that I only half-listened to people explaining Christian holidays and Jewish holidays. I'll mention that these Germans had never spent any time with Jews- they knew one or two acquaintances but never an actual conversation. So they asked us quite a few questions about Judaism, including how culture and religion mixed. We explained that it's far more complicated than that. Growing up in a Christian country, I don't think any of us had any questions about the meanings behind these Christian holidays. I interjected a few times to explain how some of the Jewish holidays were celebrated in Israel because it's just quite fascinating that way like unless you were in Israel, you wouldn't have thought of visiting a kibbutz for Shavuot. One German mentioned (though the professor disagreed and I think many of the Americans would too) that these Christian holidays don't emphasize communal gathering the way Jewish holidays encourage. Of course, I didn't get to explain anything only probably because I'm not Modern Orthodox and didn't study the Torah. Whatever, this was a theology class and these people could explain the Torah better than me. I think at the end, Judaism took over the discussion as we didn't even make it to Christmas and the Germans were far too curious.

Afterward, we had a very, very late lunch with the executive director of AJC, David Harris. He was visiting Germany on travel and just "happened" to be in Berlin at the same time. He brought along some of his fellows who were traveling the world with him. I've met him before and interestingly, the CJU gang (Hilary, me, Sean, Ross) all ended up sitting in front of him. He eventually remembered all of us from spring 2006 when he helped to start the campus society at Colgate. (Grandma, Berlin is seriously filled with vegetarian restaurants if you know where to look!) I was so, so, so jetlagged that my head kept rolling around as I struggle to keep one eye open that Hilary had to tap my arm to wake up. (Embarrassing enough to be doing it in front of David Harris!). I think part of it was that so much of the conversation was on the Holocaust. People kept asking questions in a way that Harris had to talk about the Holocaust and his relationship to it (his parents were survivors). There was one or two questions about German-Jewish relations and in Poland. I decided to turn the tables around as he brought up AJC's role in integrating Jews from other countries into their new homelands. So I asked him about AJC's role (if any) in helping the Soviet emigrates integrate in the German society and the issues behind it (AJC does not currently have any offices beyond Warsaw in which I was kind of disappointing knowing how important the Russian Jews are). He explained that it was a very, very big issue for everyone in dealing with the Russian Jews. First, it was all about giving them basic needs and now it's about identity crisis. Very few Russian Jews lately have been able to consider themselves German Jews but not yet German. He said that it's a bit like us American Jews. Can we call ourselves Americans? What about Jews living in America? All the many versions of sidestepping the self-labeling issue. It was also a matter of helping these Russian Jews learn more about Judaism as the Soviets promoted "cultural genocide" on the Jews so that many of them have no knowledge of Hebrew or the Torah. So anyway, I'll talk much more about this either on Thursday or Friday when we actually meet the Russian Jews (They really are fascinating)

After this long lunch, we had only about an hour or so of free time. So Jenn (Cornell), Miranda (Harvard), and I went over to the kiosks. It was really cool and absolutely refreshing from all the tough discussions. I know that certain people would be in love with all the little things Christmas. It had beautiful crafts and some treats. There was even one stand that had aristocrat costumes! The area was quite lively and each stand was clearly marked the seller's items. Jenn and I grabbed some meat treats- she got bratwurst and I got currywurst. Lena told me later that after all these years of living in Germany, she still has no clue what the sauce on curreywurst is made of as they don't actually sell it on the shelves. So these "wurst" guys made quite good money for this secret recipe. But my friend, Kevin, who spent quite bit of time in Germany, just told me over Skype that it's just a mixture of ketchup and curry powder. It's just that sauce covering slices of wurst in a little dish. Unfortunately, I don't think the quality of meat between the US and Germany is much different at all since we pretty much import them from Germany anyway (especially in NYC). Miranda got this kind of ball dough thingie...)

I'll say that a lot of things here are VERY expensive. I happened to notice on my way to the bathroom after the Harris lunch that the cigarette vending machine sold cigarettes for 15-35 euros a pack. Thank God I don't have that smoking addiction! I mean, seriously, who would pay that much?! Of all the things, even the kiosks (well not that bad), I haven't seen any kind of steals here. So even with all the Chanukkah money, I still haven't quite found anything worthwhile... besides a couple of shots of vodka.

Anyway, for dinner, we had a guest, Dr. Peter von der Osten-Sacken, who talked about "Germans and the Holocaust." I think by this point, everyone just sort of got the point about the German attitudes towards the Holocaust. Or maybe they thought the Germans just weren't answering their pressing/tough questions about the Holocaust. Also at least half of the people are more interesting in German foreign policy.... So anyway, I asked him about different perspectives on the rescue/bystander issue in different countries and how their Holocaust museums/memorials emphasize certain aspects. Being the perpetrator state, I asked how that issue fit in with the collective memory. In short, he said that the fear was so intense after 1938 that no German could come forward to save the Jews. Today, part of the collective memory and insistence was not just to remember the Jews who perished but also the Germans who feared too much and remained silent about the treatment of the Jews. He kept emphasizing the "silence" which reminds me of the Soviet Union under Stalin. Boy, Hitler and Stalin had a lot in common!

Lena asked me what I liked about Germany so far. I'll admit that it's a tough question because it's a bit of an emotional trip for me that it's hard for me to like it right away like I did with Prague and Israel, being Jewish communities. So I mustered with how I was surprised to hear the soft-spoken German language, not the harsh sounding voices in Nazi and war films. Lena said that German had never been spoken harshly like those films and it's quite common in the film industry to play that up. I told her how it's not as gutteral as I thought which was one of the little reasons why I wasn't compelled to learn German when I had the opportunity in my sophomore year. I'll also say that Germans are quite friendly people even if they're incredibly formal that I can't wait to get back in the rumble-tumble of Israeli life! The young people are pretty cool. The restaurants are very, very chic that Manhattan can't even beat 'em.

Each day, East Berlin wakes up a little, showing me a bit more and more of its contemporary life. Not the emotional and physical ruins of the Soviet rule. But it does make me think about how badly I want to go to Russia and live there for a bit to learn the language. Could I put up with this kind of atmosphere? But if the people can really make their city a nice one despite the past, then it's worth giving it a shot.

It's soooooo cold here- no wind or any precipitation here so it's just COLD! The Princeton Tigers didn't bring warmer coats or boots or hats so they had to shop in their free time. Oy. I'm glad I have everything so I don't have to pay all those euros!

Also I'll say that each activity that we did and as I learned more and more about my peers, I realized what an unique position I am in in understanding the Jewish Diaspora and the effects of it in relation to Israel and vice versa from my experience in Israel. (I believe that I was the only one who spent more than 2 months in Israel) I mean I was not sure how many people would know about the Soviet Jews or the reality of Israeli-Palestinian issues or how to "compare" Darfur to Shoah. I felt clammed up for most part because those things are just so emotional that it's hard to share and get these optimistic/idealistic/naive kids to understand the complexities of this Jewish world. Another thing that David Harris said about his journey in understanding the Holocaust was someone told him that "the more you know, the less you understand." Well for the Holocaust, it happened. What happened, happened. But it's quite true for the Jewish Diaspora though I think I'd paraphrase that statement to "the more facts you have, the more difficult it is to analyze the situation." While it's great to have all the facts, how do you put them together neatly?