I'm not a Potterhead. I'm serious. I don't collect anything except for the books. I don't even own any of the DVDs. I love JK Rowling's writing- she is truly a gifted artist. Yes, I have read the "sequel" which I liked okay.
Yet, as I'm sitting through my "Literature of the Holocaust" course, I am getting freaked out each week. The novels, as my professor warned, would get more difficult as we progress. Well, last week, we read Israeli novelist David Grossman's See Under: Love. It's a beautiful story that should be read at least twice. It's a difficult book because of the writing structure (not just because it's translated from Hebrew). It's full of magic realism. In class, we began covering the usual themes of Holocaust literature. The more we discussed the themes of good vs. evil and language, the more I thought about Harry Potter.
For example, there is a long chapter where Wasserman, the house Jew, and Nigel, the SS officer, discuss Wasserman's story-telling. Wasserman manages to convince Nigel that humanity exists in this world and what Nigel was doing out there to the laborers was just pure evil and thoughtless, and heartless. Nigel commits suicide because he couldn't believe what he was doing and accept the fact that humanity exists. Wasserman wins by telling the story of love between him and his wife, and his actual story characters. Love saves Wasserman's life, just as many other Jews', their faith in humanity.
And of course, the Nazis lose.
Seeing the power struggle between Wasserman and Nigel completely reminds me of the scene between Voldemort and Harry in the Goblet of Fire where their wands clash. Harry triumphs because he saw the love in the characters whom Voldemort killed in this scene. Voldemort killed innocent people who believed in humanity and Harry decides to fight to preserve that. Also, people speculated for a long time why Harry survived. They believed that he was the Messiah, the Chosen One. But Dumbledore points out that Voldemort was defeated because of Harry's mother's love saved Harry and defeated Voldemort when he attempted the death curse on them. Harry goes on in the rest of series with this belief that his mother saved his life and uses humanity and love as a weapon to fight off Voldemort. Before Goblet of Fire, Harry survived their duels through wit and talent.
There's the issue of racism in Harry Potter as well.
Voldemort represents Hitler. They believe in racial purity. They have specific categories. Any drop of non-pure blood is considered inferior. Both of them have a drop of non-pure blood but they don't make an issue of it at all (or rather, just makes them believe the importance of having pure blood in order to keep the rest of the world from becoming deformed and crazy like them). The terms are extremely offensive and marginalize the targets- mixed blood and inferior blood people (In Harry Potter, that means Mudbloods and Muggles, in Nazism, Jews all around). In Harry Potter, the issue really is whether you have the blood and inherited ability to perform magic. There are mudbloods like Herimone who are exceptionally talented. There are squibs, like Argus Filch the groundkeeper at Hogwarts, who are wizards but cannot perform magic to save their lives. For Nazis, you had to be Aryan without mental or physically disablities. For them, if you were not pure and perfect, you would be detested.
Recruitment for evil deeds
In Harry Potter, we have watched Darco Malfoy struggle in school. He's a decent student but feels like a failure compared to Harry Potter and Herimone Granger. As he moves up, especially after The Order of the Phoenix, he becomes intrigued by the idea of joining Voldemort's world of Death Eaters. He also is under pressured, by self and his father, to be part of it because then he would be something, somebody. Through this line of thinking, Draco begins to fantaizes about killing Harry Potter himself. Voldemort gives him the opportunity to do so but Draco fails because he still had some sense of humanity within himself.
This parallels with the recruitment for Hitler Youth and the SS. The SS officers joined because they were just "ordinary" German citizens who didn't see a future for themselves. They wanted an opportunity to be part of something big that would change history.
Death Eaters and SS officers will tell you, if on trial, that they were just "following orders".
Yes, both groups have internal motives. They believed in purity. They hate the fact that "impure" people are highly successful in the society. Death Eaters cannnot stand Harry Potter because he "loves" mudbloods and is the sensation of the wizardry world. This is analogous to German Jews, especially the highly acclaimed scientists like Oppeheimer and Einstein.
Language of silence.
If it's one thing that I truly learned from this course and connected with this series is the use of language. In Harry Potter, there is a specific set of vocabulary that pertains to Voldemort's world. Nazis butchered German language, taking certain words and associating them with their own actions. Consequently, the population can't bring themselves to say certain words or make specific references. For example, I saw this connection in See Under: Love when Momik (the protagonist) hears specifi vocabulary of "Over There" and "Nazi beast". "Nazi beast" represents anything (in my understanding) relevant to the Nazis, most likely the whole systematic killing machine developed in death camps. They never mention Hitler, Auschwitz or Europe, or anything. This is the same for when wizards avoid naming Voldemort by his name, but only "The One Who Must Not Be Named". They never mention the three "unforgivable curses". They want to forget the horrible times when Voldemort was in full power. People rejoice when they see or hear about Harry Potter and don't ever want to talk about the past with him. (That is the beauty of the series, forcing the readers and Harry Potter to keep going in order to understand his past.)
Resistance.
I liked "Dumbledore's Army" to the Jewish resistance fighters. I see a connection between the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in The Half-Blooded Prince (one of the most amazing scenes in any of Harry Potter films). This was a somewhat failed attempt by Dumbledore's Army to kill as many Death Eaters as possible. It was heroic in a sense that they took a chance. When Harry, Herimone, and Ron drops out of school to "fight" Voldemort by finding all the Horcuxes and encounters danger in every corner, I am reminded of the Jewish partisan fighters in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. To be such a fighter, one had to be willing to face the worst.
Rowling acknowledged that she made "death" the major theme of her books. We always knew that Voldemort wanted revenge on Harry Potter but it only becomes serious when Voldemort returns to full power after Goblet of Fire. When he realizes that he didn't kill Harry just by taking his blood, he decides that in order to truly banish Harry from the world was to create a "final solution" - to kill him once for all, not to take him by alive and do something. It wasn't enough. The Nazis, once they figured out mass killings through Einsatzgruppen and gassing, death became a prevelant theme of the Holocaust literature. Elie Wiesel's Night smells of death. Once the Nazis and Voldemort figured out the "Final Solution", the rest of the story is centered around death.
These just some... rambling thoughts that went through my head during class... truly, I haven't read the books in a good while... I'm sure I can do a deep analytical paper on this. But I don't think my English professor would go for it at all. If she actually says fine, this would be the best final paper that I can ever write in my whole academic career in a sense that I would absolutely enjoy this topic.
Again, I will emphasize that I'm no Potterhead but simply that I recognize JK Rowling's incredible literary imagination that encompasses all themes of the Holocaust throughout her series.
Showing posts with label holocaust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holocaust. Show all posts
Monday, November 16, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Report on Summer 2009
Throughout my last day in San Francisco, I looked back to my last 3 1/2 months of summer. I still remembered my advisor's e-mail in June when I reported to her on how things were going. She was happy that I was having a very productive summer. At first I thought, "Well, I don't know... I feel like I still have plenty of downtime..." At first, it felt like being on vacation in San Francisco. Now, I realized that this summer had been productive in sense of giving my time to do my work. I tried to do something for at least 3 hours or more each day except for Fridays and Saturdays (I have been stuck on Israeli work week schedule since returning two years ago!). It might be working on my computer, getting things organized and e-mailing people about transcripts, appointments, and information. It might be taking Van Ness bus down to the library to browse a month's worth of San Francisco Chronicle. It might be on the phone, making appointments. Or preparing and thinking about my day's interview appointment. In any way, I felt that I was making steps forward to creating a thick binder full of notes to go through in September. Even in Israel, I showed up for classes everyday on time. I made sure that my second trip to San Francisco was very productive in terms of getting all the rest of the materials before I resign myself to mircofilm only access at Michigan. It wasn't always a chunk of 3 hours but just spread over the day (you know, those "start exercising by breaking up 30 minutes into 3 10 minutes workouts). I had to be very flexible in order to work around various people's schedules. So in all, I loved my workdays as I'm in "schedule-doesn't-matter-so-as-long-things-get-done" school.
I sigh with disbelief on how I made this summer so productive in comparison to the last two or three years. I was a serious bum in the last two summers in Israel and Rochester. I couldn't take an internship or a job as my sessions in Israel fell during the month of July. It certainly had been a while since I *worked* on regular hours.
I got the experience of living in a city that had once been my vacation destination as a working woman. Did I like this change? (Washington hadn't been a vacation destination as my family and I rarely ever went in the city when we visited my uncle in the suburbs.)
In many ways, yes and no. I learned to navigate San Francisco on my own, explored new neighborhoods and eateries, and experienced what it's like to live in one of the world's most expensive cities (Tel Aviv is expensive on an Israeli salary, especially with the rent). In other ways, living there diminished the excitement of going to certain places upon arrival because, well, they're there. So what?
Yet, I enjoyed learning about San Francisco Jewish heritage and what made San Francisco Jews tick. I also needed the feeling of being isolated from the East Coast, away from Yiddish influenced culture into inherently American, Californian inspired culture. Each city has its reasons to be proud of. For San Franciscans, they indeed look down upon nearly every major Pacific port city and proclaimed San Francisco to be ideal. The weather, long history since Gold Rush, low-key liberal atmosphere, and high rate of assimilation defined San Francisco. Oh yes, they love the fog. (For them, it's hellva better than rain!) I've heard critics lambasting San Franciscans and Californians for most part for living in the past and believing that their Golden Age had yet to pass (By Golden Age, I do mean the decades following Gold Rush that brought wealth to the area from industries, port shipping, and exploitation of natural resources). They said, "San Franciscans, wake up! You're in middle of a budget crisis!!!" Although there's nothing I could do about Muni and BART's woes, I could understand where San Franciscans came from with their native pride due to its early years of building a new American city.
As I progress with my project, I learn more about my paper in sense of topics it will cover. It empasses such a wide variety of topics within that without a strong framework, it will get muddled. There are number of things I will need to emphasize what this is all about.
*Jewish refugees in the United States, not only Shanghai Jews but also need to mention the Russian Jews as it was the source of anger for Shanghai Jews when they reflect on assistance from Jewish organizations. The contrast between European refugees and Soviet refugees demonstrated the change in American Jews' education and awareness of the Diaspora.
*San Francisco Jews clearly separating themselves from the rest of American Jewish population, including Los Angeles (especially Los Angeles) by identifying themselves to be free of Yiddish/European yolk, assimilated into American culture (as far as having Christmas trees), and I believe, saw Judaism as peoplehood, not religious nor cultural.
*Distance to the Pacific theater frightened all San Francisco Jews yet they shuddered a bit as they sponsored distant relatives from Germany from 1938 to 1940. "We knew something bad was happening that we had to sponsor them but we didn't know."
*Like many other Jews in America, I believe, San Francisco Jews were no exception in participating in war efforts. Their location heightened their desire to fight the Japanese and give their best efforts to help the United States win. Nazi Germany was still an enemy but war hysterics dictated their attitudes. "The Japanese attacked us! We were so afraid that they'd bomb this city..." Gradually, however, the Jews admitted that as the war dragged on, it became important to fight both fronts, not only the Pacific.
*After the war, individual San Francisco Jews turned their attention away from the aftermath of European war to focus on all the returning servicemen, return of normalcy, and building of homes in the Presidio, Richmond, Sunset, and Sea Cliff neighborhoods. Presidio had been the home of military activities. Families wanted to move out into bigger dwellings, thus this was the beginning of surburbia within the city. Also, the Jewish population became even more spread out, creating multiple bubbles that left them unaware of other neighborhood Jewish communities like Shanghai Jews in the Sunset district.
*As predicted, Shanghai Jews, when they could, maintained its refugee community as it had in Shanghai within the "ghetto". Baghdadi and Russian Jews were probably left out of the resettled community.
*Jewish migration pattern changed due to suburbia and rules of resettlement for the newcomers. Prior migration patterns should be taken note as well as many of San Francisco Jews hailed from German Jewish background. Only one family who I interviewed came after the 1906 earthquake from the East but they were still German.
This project still raises questions in which I will write all over my new whiteboard. While this project revealed interesting perspectives, I must think further how does this fit within scholarship in American history, American Jewish history, and Holocaust history.
I enjoyed every interview that I conducted with San Francisco natives and Shanghai Jews. I loved listening to Shanghai Jews' accents (mostly German, still heavy after all these years!) and admired their resilence. San Francisco natives shared their idealism and journey to their Jewish identities. I was shocked that many had grown up with Christmas trees but had to laugh afterwards because how they saw Christmas trees was how I saw them when I was growing up as well! (I did not, unfortunately, had a Christmas tree.) Sometimes it was challenging to convince San Francisco natives that their stories were important to my project because often after reading my consent form, they exclaimed, "But I didn't know anything! I knew nothing! I can't help you..." Shanghai Jews weren't easy as well as some of them were exhausted from many interviews over the years or experienced different forms of losses that made them unwilling to share at the moment. I had to use my charm to persuade them into believing that they could trust me that their stories mattered in the face of history. I knew that many Shanghai Jews would come out a-okay but I wanted to know just how difficult it was to get sympathy and assistance from American Jews as that was the point of my project.
I owe so many thanks to people who assisted me in the archives, friends of my grandparents in giving me contacts, and of course, my grandparents for providing me a bed and a kitchen.
One thing that did hit me hard was having one Shanghai Jew cancelling on me and later finding out that he was "very old and frail". I realized what Holocaust centers really meant when they say that we're "racing against time" in obtaining testimonies. I did manage to obtain testimonies from many of Shanghai Jews because they did want to talk a bit about their experiences even though I gave them the option to skip over to 1947-1948. It makes me wonder what will my job as a historian in a Holocaust museum/center will look like 20 years from now when the survivors were only small children. The world just lost the last WWI veteran and a Titanic survivor. Next will be somebody in the Russian Revolution. Soon enough, it will be the Holocaust. All we will have left are testimonies and recordings. I am extremely fortunate enough to have opportunities to interact with Nazi refugees in person so that I will never forget their voices and facial expressions as they articulated their stories in front of me.
I sigh with disbelief on how I made this summer so productive in comparison to the last two or three years. I was a serious bum in the last two summers in Israel and Rochester. I couldn't take an internship or a job as my sessions in Israel fell during the month of July. It certainly had been a while since I *worked* on regular hours.
I got the experience of living in a city that had once been my vacation destination as a working woman. Did I like this change? (Washington hadn't been a vacation destination as my family and I rarely ever went in the city when we visited my uncle in the suburbs.)
In many ways, yes and no. I learned to navigate San Francisco on my own, explored new neighborhoods and eateries, and experienced what it's like to live in one of the world's most expensive cities (Tel Aviv is expensive on an Israeli salary, especially with the rent). In other ways, living there diminished the excitement of going to certain places upon arrival because, well, they're there. So what?
Yet, I enjoyed learning about San Francisco Jewish heritage and what made San Francisco Jews tick. I also needed the feeling of being isolated from the East Coast, away from Yiddish influenced culture into inherently American, Californian inspired culture. Each city has its reasons to be proud of. For San Franciscans, they indeed look down upon nearly every major Pacific port city and proclaimed San Francisco to be ideal. The weather, long history since Gold Rush, low-key liberal atmosphere, and high rate of assimilation defined San Francisco. Oh yes, they love the fog. (For them, it's hellva better than rain!) I've heard critics lambasting San Franciscans and Californians for most part for living in the past and believing that their Golden Age had yet to pass (By Golden Age, I do mean the decades following Gold Rush that brought wealth to the area from industries, port shipping, and exploitation of natural resources). They said, "San Franciscans, wake up! You're in middle of a budget crisis!!!" Although there's nothing I could do about Muni and BART's woes, I could understand where San Franciscans came from with their native pride due to its early years of building a new American city.
As I progress with my project, I learn more about my paper in sense of topics it will cover. It empasses such a wide variety of topics within that without a strong framework, it will get muddled. There are number of things I will need to emphasize what this is all about.
*Jewish refugees in the United States, not only Shanghai Jews but also need to mention the Russian Jews as it was the source of anger for Shanghai Jews when they reflect on assistance from Jewish organizations. The contrast between European refugees and Soviet refugees demonstrated the change in American Jews' education and awareness of the Diaspora.
*San Francisco Jews clearly separating themselves from the rest of American Jewish population, including Los Angeles (especially Los Angeles) by identifying themselves to be free of Yiddish/European yolk, assimilated into American culture (as far as having Christmas trees), and I believe, saw Judaism as peoplehood, not religious nor cultural.
*Distance to the Pacific theater frightened all San Francisco Jews yet they shuddered a bit as they sponsored distant relatives from Germany from 1938 to 1940. "We knew something bad was happening that we had to sponsor them but we didn't know."
*Like many other Jews in America, I believe, San Francisco Jews were no exception in participating in war efforts. Their location heightened their desire to fight the Japanese and give their best efforts to help the United States win. Nazi Germany was still an enemy but war hysterics dictated their attitudes. "The Japanese attacked us! We were so afraid that they'd bomb this city..." Gradually, however, the Jews admitted that as the war dragged on, it became important to fight both fronts, not only the Pacific.
*After the war, individual San Francisco Jews turned their attention away from the aftermath of European war to focus on all the returning servicemen, return of normalcy, and building of homes in the Presidio, Richmond, Sunset, and Sea Cliff neighborhoods. Presidio had been the home of military activities. Families wanted to move out into bigger dwellings, thus this was the beginning of surburbia within the city. Also, the Jewish population became even more spread out, creating multiple bubbles that left them unaware of other neighborhood Jewish communities like Shanghai Jews in the Sunset district.
*As predicted, Shanghai Jews, when they could, maintained its refugee community as it had in Shanghai within the "ghetto". Baghdadi and Russian Jews were probably left out of the resettled community.
*Jewish migration pattern changed due to suburbia and rules of resettlement for the newcomers. Prior migration patterns should be taken note as well as many of San Francisco Jews hailed from German Jewish background. Only one family who I interviewed came after the 1906 earthquake from the East but they were still German.
This project still raises questions in which I will write all over my new whiteboard. While this project revealed interesting perspectives, I must think further how does this fit within scholarship in American history, American Jewish history, and Holocaust history.
I enjoyed every interview that I conducted with San Francisco natives and Shanghai Jews. I loved listening to Shanghai Jews' accents (mostly German, still heavy after all these years!) and admired their resilence. San Francisco natives shared their idealism and journey to their Jewish identities. I was shocked that many had grown up with Christmas trees but had to laugh afterwards because how they saw Christmas trees was how I saw them when I was growing up as well! (I did not, unfortunately, had a Christmas tree.) Sometimes it was challenging to convince San Francisco natives that their stories were important to my project because often after reading my consent form, they exclaimed, "But I didn't know anything! I knew nothing! I can't help you..." Shanghai Jews weren't easy as well as some of them were exhausted from many interviews over the years or experienced different forms of losses that made them unwilling to share at the moment. I had to use my charm to persuade them into believing that they could trust me that their stories mattered in the face of history. I knew that many Shanghai Jews would come out a-okay but I wanted to know just how difficult it was to get sympathy and assistance from American Jews as that was the point of my project.
I owe so many thanks to people who assisted me in the archives, friends of my grandparents in giving me contacts, and of course, my grandparents for providing me a bed and a kitchen.
One thing that did hit me hard was having one Shanghai Jew cancelling on me and later finding out that he was "very old and frail". I realized what Holocaust centers really meant when they say that we're "racing against time" in obtaining testimonies. I did manage to obtain testimonies from many of Shanghai Jews because they did want to talk a bit about their experiences even though I gave them the option to skip over to 1947-1948. It makes me wonder what will my job as a historian in a Holocaust museum/center will look like 20 years from now when the survivors were only small children. The world just lost the last WWI veteran and a Titanic survivor. Next will be somebody in the Russian Revolution. Soon enough, it will be the Holocaust. All we will have left are testimonies and recordings. I am extremely fortunate enough to have opportunities to interact with Nazi refugees in person so that I will never forget their voices and facial expressions as they articulated their stories in front of me.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Last Days in Berlin
My last day in Berlin was wonderful. I really got to walk around a lot. First, I took the Bahn to Potsdam and walked all the way down to southwestern part of Berlin to visit KaWeDe, the fancy German department store that had an entire floor devoted to gourmet food, including a huge chocolate section. I took the S-Bahn back up to Potsdam Plaza and walked around its Christmas marketplace where I had bratwurst and saw Europe's "largest man-made sledding hill." It looked liked a lot of fun! But I had no one to watch my stuff and I didn't trust anyone. Then I wanted to see Reichstag or the Soviet Memorial.... I couldn't find the Soviet Memorial and I figured that I had already seen Reichstag there was no need... Berlin is really very walking friendly actually. I just hopped on the Bahn just to cut some time so I went from Potsdam down to near Checkpoint Charlie. By the way, remains of the Berlin Wall still exist around the city and often there'll be some German "soldier" giving a brief history of the Wall for tourist attraction. They even will stamp your passport with the old stamp but I didn't take up the offer... I didn't want to make the US immigration officials question my passport. From Checkpoint Charlie, I walked another 10ish minutes to the Jewish Museum where I could run into Lena and anyone else tagging along with her (I was supposed to meet back at the hotel but I had no time).
What struck me when I saw the Jewish Museum was two buildings standing next to or attached to each other, very different in architectural styles. One was a beautiful yellow colonial Victorian style mansion and the other was extremely modern black thing. I went inside. I was struck by the interior architecture of the "new" part of the Museum with its 3 axis- Holocaust, Diaspora, and one other that I forgot... that connect Jews together in modern Jewish history. The rest of the museum was solely focused on educating the public the important contributions that Jews made to the national German history starting back in 1600s with a brief overview of the ancient times. I recognized a lot of names and events from my Early Modern Jewish history (thanks Prof. Schwartz!) and felt a bit like an idiot for not appreciating these characters more when I took the class. I gave 5 eurocent to a machine that converted it to a Moses Mendelssohn coin. He's the most famous German-Jewish philosopher who questioned Judaism and advocated for assimilation but discussed the issue of the loss of Jewish identity. Many historians see him as the "father of Modern Jewish history" or the "Father of Reform Judaism." To me, he did hold some responsibility for encouraging assimilation instead of striving to balance Judaism and the national identity. Anyway, the exhibitions bored me a little because I knew so much of the stuff in general but thought it was a terrific resource for anyone wanting to know more about German Jewish history. They barely covered the Holocaust.
Afterward, those who I met up with the Museum and I took a bus out to Dr. Pruin's apartment for a reception of tea and some German sweets. Note to Mom and Dad: she made all of us take off our shoes in the hallway!!! It was the first and last time that we congregated as a group to discuss our opinions and feelings about the trip. (I was kind of wondering if Dr. Pruin picked up some kind of cue from Lena that we Americans like to talk about our feelings and give opinions.) Everyone certainly had something to add. My friend, Hilary, made a point about why I just felt so content when I visited Terezin last year. She mentioned that her visit to Poland and Auschwitz last spring made her feel uncomfortable with the Holocaust and coming to Germany allowed her to reconcile her feelings towards the Holocaust. For me, I came to terms with the Holocaust long time ago- when I worked for the USHMM, not because I wanted to but because my job demanded it. I shared my opinions how it would've been a bit easier to explore Berlin on the first day because it's not easy for American Jews to come to Germany and it wasn't really until our free time on Wednesday night did I start to feel at home in Germany because I had the opportunity to see Berlin up close in person, not some face out of the window on a bus. Other than that, I highly recommend this trip for any American Jew as a "must-do" trip along with birthright Israel because coming to Germany really allowed many of us to confront with the impact of Jews in Germany, how much Germany needs Jews, and the Jewish issues in larger perspective such as the Russian Jews in the Diaspora and how can American Jews use its power to restore Jewish communities in Germany. There was a sense of purpose there to promote Germany as the home of modern Jewish history and the privilege of being there and given the chance to revive Germany's great Jewish culture.
I really came to terms with the German language. For a long time, I knew that I needed to study German but I went towards Russian because I wasn't emotionally ready to deal with German. After my internships at the USHMM and watching the Nazi films, I just couldn't do it. I also didn't have enough time in school to take German. I was going to do it last summer but again, I wasn't ready for German. I thought about it for this fall after Professor Bankier told me that it would be very hard to get a job with a Holocaust museum without German but with senior thesis and grad school applications, I wouldn't be able to put 100% effort in German. All still, I wasn't emotionally ready. I was too uncomfortable to hear "harsh" German and I trembled seeing the German text. Berlin gave me a whole new perspective on German- it seemed like maybe I can handle German. It's not that difficult.... but being around the language 24/7 was encouraging because German is not really spoken all that harsh- it's actually very soft (which is why German accents are hot!). I'll think about it.
After reception, we went to an amazing Greek restaurant where I had my first taste of lamb in FOREVER- probably since Spain last January! It was SOOOOOO cold out that I couldn't wait to head home!
My flight back to Rochester was horrendous. We had a 5 hour delay in Berlin to London because of very heavy fog. Half of the passengers had connections in London so naturally we were all concerned. British Airways did a wonderful job of handling us. Fortunately there was wireless in the Berlin airport (which by the way there is no central security area, each gate has its own passport control, security, waiting area, cafe, WCs, and duty-free store) so I got on the Internet and talked with my dad (7:30 AM in EST!). When we boarded the plane, British Airways gave us a nice snack bag with water bottles. I was SO exhausted that I just clunked out when I sat down and remained so for the next 3ish hours. When we took off for London, British Airways gave us dinner of sandwiches- sweet! I was tired still so I fell asleep for another hour.... Then once I got off the plane in London, I jogged through the security, had to wait for the stupid terminal transfer buses (45 minutes connection. good god!), and ran up through Terminal 3. A lot of flights had been delayed or cancelled and I just mostly wanted to find a JFK flight. Dad had mentioned that the 8 PM US Airways flight was the last one so I ran over to look for its gate. After talking with the people, I was placed on a lonnnnnggggg stand-by list of like 15ish people. The woman had doubts on whether I'd even get on or not. Once I got the stand-by ticket, I decided to use the bathroom. Not thinking there was one already in the gate waiting area, I went out the main hall and one of the guys from the gate stopped me and ask to hold my passport while I used the bathroom. Sheesh, some security! Fortunately, a lot of us on the stand-by got on the flight because so many flights were delayed. Yay!!! Then I realized that I needed to know what time my Jetblue would leave. So I asked a person near me in the plane- turned out that this plane would land 5 minutes after Jetblue's scheduled departure time. I quickly formulated a Plan B- just call Dad and ask for Amtrak schedule figuring if there was a train at 1 AM or 2 AM, I'd still get home sooner than if I waited until the morning at JFK. On the way over Atlantic, I spent a lot of time sleeping.... I was THAT exhausted from that trip! Once I landed at JFK, Dad called me to tell me that Jetblue had been delayed. I said fine and see what time. JFK was experiencing so much air traffic (thanks to some weather troubles in Chicago) that a lot of Jetblue flights were delayed at least 4 hours. So I barely missed the 8:25 PM flight that'd take off ar 12:48 AM. So I stuck around in the terminal, away from the furnace in the middle area. I found such an amusing sight- a family of four was sound asleep between rows of chairs! My cell was low on battery so I couldn't turn on its alarm clock so I could snooze. My flight was to be delayed until 3 AM but we actually didn't take off until 3:30 AM. I had originally told my parents to forget trying to pick me up because to pick me up at 3:30, 4 AM was not a good idea. Once I heard that we'd land at 4:30ish, I thought that it'd be more humane hour for my mom who gets up at 5:30 for her spin class. I met her in Rochester a little after 5 AM after sleeping on the plane all the way over there. First thing when she and I went into my room that I wanted to do was to shower! I was so wide-awake, having gained full night's sleep in intervals since Berlin. Mom thought I was crazy and I should go to sleep. I showered anyway... and went to bed because there was nothing better to do for another 2 or 3 hours.
For the next 3 days, my brain felt so fried that I couldn't absorb anything, not even meaningless tv shows or cartoons. I had never felt so strange in my life and even when I saw my final grades, I felt nothing (except happiness that I had passed Stats with a C!). I just ..... didn't want to do anything.
What struck me when I saw the Jewish Museum was two buildings standing next to or attached to each other, very different in architectural styles. One was a beautiful yellow colonial Victorian style mansion and the other was extremely modern black thing. I went inside. I was struck by the interior architecture of the "new" part of the Museum with its 3 axis- Holocaust, Diaspora, and one other that I forgot... that connect Jews together in modern Jewish history. The rest of the museum was solely focused on educating the public the important contributions that Jews made to the national German history starting back in 1600s with a brief overview of the ancient times. I recognized a lot of names and events from my Early Modern Jewish history (thanks Prof. Schwartz!) and felt a bit like an idiot for not appreciating these characters more when I took the class. I gave 5 eurocent to a machine that converted it to a Moses Mendelssohn coin. He's the most famous German-Jewish philosopher who questioned Judaism and advocated for assimilation but discussed the issue of the loss of Jewish identity. Many historians see him as the "father of Modern Jewish history" or the "Father of Reform Judaism." To me, he did hold some responsibility for encouraging assimilation instead of striving to balance Judaism and the national identity. Anyway, the exhibitions bored me a little because I knew so much of the stuff in general but thought it was a terrific resource for anyone wanting to know more about German Jewish history. They barely covered the Holocaust.
Afterward, those who I met up with the Museum and I took a bus out to Dr. Pruin's apartment for a reception of tea and some German sweets. Note to Mom and Dad: she made all of us take off our shoes in the hallway!!! It was the first and last time that we congregated as a group to discuss our opinions and feelings about the trip. (I was kind of wondering if Dr. Pruin picked up some kind of cue from Lena that we Americans like to talk about our feelings and give opinions.) Everyone certainly had something to add. My friend, Hilary, made a point about why I just felt so content when I visited Terezin last year. She mentioned that her visit to Poland and Auschwitz last spring made her feel uncomfortable with the Holocaust and coming to Germany allowed her to reconcile her feelings towards the Holocaust. For me, I came to terms with the Holocaust long time ago- when I worked for the USHMM, not because I wanted to but because my job demanded it. I shared my opinions how it would've been a bit easier to explore Berlin on the first day because it's not easy for American Jews to come to Germany and it wasn't really until our free time on Wednesday night did I start to feel at home in Germany because I had the opportunity to see Berlin up close in person, not some face out of the window on a bus. Other than that, I highly recommend this trip for any American Jew as a "must-do" trip along with birthright Israel because coming to Germany really allowed many of us to confront with the impact of Jews in Germany, how much Germany needs Jews, and the Jewish issues in larger perspective such as the Russian Jews in the Diaspora and how can American Jews use its power to restore Jewish communities in Germany. There was a sense of purpose there to promote Germany as the home of modern Jewish history and the privilege of being there and given the chance to revive Germany's great Jewish culture.
I really came to terms with the German language. For a long time, I knew that I needed to study German but I went towards Russian because I wasn't emotionally ready to deal with German. After my internships at the USHMM and watching the Nazi films, I just couldn't do it. I also didn't have enough time in school to take German. I was going to do it last summer but again, I wasn't ready for German. I thought about it for this fall after Professor Bankier told me that it would be very hard to get a job with a Holocaust museum without German but with senior thesis and grad school applications, I wouldn't be able to put 100% effort in German. All still, I wasn't emotionally ready. I was too uncomfortable to hear "harsh" German and I trembled seeing the German text. Berlin gave me a whole new perspective on German- it seemed like maybe I can handle German. It's not that difficult.... but being around the language 24/7 was encouraging because German is not really spoken all that harsh- it's actually very soft (which is why German accents are hot!). I'll think about it.
After reception, we went to an amazing Greek restaurant where I had my first taste of lamb in FOREVER- probably since Spain last January! It was SOOOOOO cold out that I couldn't wait to head home!
My flight back to Rochester was horrendous. We had a 5 hour delay in Berlin to London because of very heavy fog. Half of the passengers had connections in London so naturally we were all concerned. British Airways did a wonderful job of handling us. Fortunately there was wireless in the Berlin airport (which by the way there is no central security area, each gate has its own passport control, security, waiting area, cafe, WCs, and duty-free store) so I got on the Internet and talked with my dad (7:30 AM in EST!). When we boarded the plane, British Airways gave us a nice snack bag with water bottles. I was SO exhausted that I just clunked out when I sat down and remained so for the next 3ish hours. When we took off for London, British Airways gave us dinner of sandwiches- sweet! I was tired still so I fell asleep for another hour.... Then once I got off the plane in London, I jogged through the security, had to wait for the stupid terminal transfer buses (45 minutes connection. good god!), and ran up through Terminal 3. A lot of flights had been delayed or cancelled and I just mostly wanted to find a JFK flight. Dad had mentioned that the 8 PM US Airways flight was the last one so I ran over to look for its gate. After talking with the people, I was placed on a lonnnnnggggg stand-by list of like 15ish people. The woman had doubts on whether I'd even get on or not. Once I got the stand-by ticket, I decided to use the bathroom. Not thinking there was one already in the gate waiting area, I went out the main hall and one of the guys from the gate stopped me and ask to hold my passport while I used the bathroom. Sheesh, some security! Fortunately, a lot of us on the stand-by got on the flight because so many flights were delayed. Yay!!! Then I realized that I needed to know what time my Jetblue would leave. So I asked a person near me in the plane- turned out that this plane would land 5 minutes after Jetblue's scheduled departure time. I quickly formulated a Plan B- just call Dad and ask for Amtrak schedule figuring if there was a train at 1 AM or 2 AM, I'd still get home sooner than if I waited until the morning at JFK. On the way over Atlantic, I spent a lot of time sleeping.... I was THAT exhausted from that trip! Once I landed at JFK, Dad called me to tell me that Jetblue had been delayed. I said fine and see what time. JFK was experiencing so much air traffic (thanks to some weather troubles in Chicago) that a lot of Jetblue flights were delayed at least 4 hours. So I barely missed the 8:25 PM flight that'd take off ar 12:48 AM. So I stuck around in the terminal, away from the furnace in the middle area. I found such an amusing sight- a family of four was sound asleep between rows of chairs! My cell was low on battery so I couldn't turn on its alarm clock so I could snooze. My flight was to be delayed until 3 AM but we actually didn't take off until 3:30 AM. I had originally told my parents to forget trying to pick me up because to pick me up at 3:30, 4 AM was not a good idea. Once I heard that we'd land at 4:30ish, I thought that it'd be more humane hour for my mom who gets up at 5:30 for her spin class. I met her in Rochester a little after 5 AM after sleeping on the plane all the way over there. First thing when she and I went into my room that I wanted to do was to shower! I was so wide-awake, having gained full night's sleep in intervals since Berlin. Mom thought I was crazy and I should go to sleep. I showered anyway... and went to bed because there was nothing better to do for another 2 or 3 hours.
For the next 3 days, my brain felt so fried that I couldn't absorb anything, not even meaningless tv shows or cartoons. I had never felt so strange in my life and even when I saw my final grades, I felt nothing (except happiness that I had passed Stats with a C!). I just ..... didn't want to do anything.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Brandenburg and Shabbat
Today we got up to make an hour trip out to Brandenberg, a small town outside Berlin of about 80,000 people and a fair number of Russian Jews living here. It's actually very beautiful with much of the architecture which survived both world wars which was impressive.
Brandenberg's significance for this trip was that it used to house a mental hospital and it was where T4 cell was developed by the Nazis. It was primarily active in late 1930's and 1940 and many people did not know what was going on inside because records were very hidden. The doctors would write letters of sympathy to families and friends of the victims that their procedure or whatever didn't work out and the medical staff failed to save them. The mental patients came from all different backgrounds- children and adults, and Jews and gentiles.
First, we visited the Museum which a Russian gave us a tour explaining the history of Brandenberg from the Prussian empire. He was really nice. Second, we took the bus out to the former site of the mental hospital. We saw the barracks that used to house the SS and the spaces where the hospital used to be. The T4 cells still stood- the walls only reached about a foot off the ground as to give the perimeter of the site. Otherwise, there was nothing, no evidence. Archaeological digs had been conducted and they found lots and lots of human bones that were buried underground. Even the files were destroyed and the government and historians have had to construct what happened from eyewitness testimonies and archaeological excavations.
Personally, I was more struck by the town's charm than the site itself. If anything, it didn't impact me as much. If this was supposed to be comparable to Terezin, then I'd say that Terezin had stronger effect because really, no one lives in Terezin and it was truly taken over by the Nazis. People still live in Brandenberg and well, you just know that life goes on and trying to rebuild the community.
We had a bagel lunch and listened to our Brandenberg guide who was German and not Jewish give a talk in German while Jasper translated. Again, we found ourselves in "lost-in-translation" position and lost concentration. So I never really learned much about the Russian community.
Before we left Brandenberg, we visited the old Jewish cemetery. The first thing I noticed was that the ground was flat with a bunch of dirt mounts which obviously meant burial sites. The Nazis razed the cemetery and converted the area into a soccer field! So after they left, the Jewish cemetery was restored through a building of a wall that listed all the buried and it's really beautiful. Along one side was a fence that was supposed to resemble an old Jewish town with cut-outs of houses and shops. We recited the kaddish and put stones on the wall. The cemetery dated back to mid-1850s... so it was pretty old.
Once we arrived back in Berlin, I made most of the short time I had to visit the Dom (Cathedral). It was just stunning! Compared to the cathedrals that I visited in Spain, I felt much more welcomed. Maybe it was the choir singing when I walked in. Or it's just that the Protestant church never really kicked out the Jews as harshly as the Catholic church during the Inquisition. Anyway, it's mostly beautiful wood and marble inside. The Dom took on the Gothic look. I sat there to listen for a bit and then climbed up to the gallery. After that, I saw some people coming down from some stairs so curiosity took over. I found myself climbing a total of 277 steps from the first floor all the way up to the dome that took visitors outside!!! So I had the most spectacular view of Berlin at twilight. I could see the clock tower, the ferris wheel, various buildings lighting up....
I climbed back down and tried to get out. Apparently, you couldn't get out in the same way you came in so I jokingly told myself that the Christians were trying to trap the Jews for religious reasons. Anyhow, I found the exit but it took a long, long time. The path took me to a very interesting room: the gravesite. I sighed when I saw it because I figured it had to be all priests and bishops, right? Then I saw two royal crowns on a coffin each and wondered if maybe a king was here.... So I stopped and started reading the plaques. I found Frederick Wheilhem II!!! That was SO cool to see parts of the royal family there.
I quickly made my way back- I realized how I was actually getting to know my way around Berlin. I know some people might think it's strange that I'd go out by myself but why let anything hold me back?
For Shabbat, some of us went to the New Synagogue for services and it was just okay. We had a bit of hard time following the services even though it was all in Hebrew (except for some sermon on Jacob in German). We managed to meet a couple of people afterwards to find out what was like to live as a Jew in Germany. One man was born in Germany to American parents who came because of music. A woman was there from Haifa, Israel who moved to Berlin over 30 years ago. She still spoke with a very, very heavy Israeli accent. Hila, one of the girls in my group, spoke in Hebrew with her to find out her story. Her husband found a job in music in Berlin and moved and she followed. They have their children in Israel. She said that the community's very close knit that many Jews feel comfortable being in Germany.
For dinner, we went to a delicious Israeli restaurant with falafels! And the best eggplant "parm" I've ever had. We did the Shabbat rituals in the restaurant (I think we pretty much had the place to ourselves) so that was enough even though the wine was unforgivable awful. I spent a lot of time making conversations with Jonah about being Jewish, relationship to Israel, and growing up on upper West Side in NYC. It was then that I found out that Second Avenue deli would be re-opening! I was so excited!
Half the people went out. I was just beyond exhaustion and I just wanted to get up in the morning to explore my last day in Berlin.... not enough hours in the way to see this amazing city!
Brandenberg's significance for this trip was that it used to house a mental hospital and it was where T4 cell was developed by the Nazis. It was primarily active in late 1930's and 1940 and many people did not know what was going on inside because records were very hidden. The doctors would write letters of sympathy to families and friends of the victims that their procedure or whatever didn't work out and the medical staff failed to save them. The mental patients came from all different backgrounds- children and adults, and Jews and gentiles.
First, we visited the Museum which a Russian gave us a tour explaining the history of Brandenberg from the Prussian empire. He was really nice. Second, we took the bus out to the former site of the mental hospital. We saw the barracks that used to house the SS and the spaces where the hospital used to be. The T4 cells still stood- the walls only reached about a foot off the ground as to give the perimeter of the site. Otherwise, there was nothing, no evidence. Archaeological digs had been conducted and they found lots and lots of human bones that were buried underground. Even the files were destroyed and the government and historians have had to construct what happened from eyewitness testimonies and archaeological excavations.
Personally, I was more struck by the town's charm than the site itself. If anything, it didn't impact me as much. If this was supposed to be comparable to Terezin, then I'd say that Terezin had stronger effect because really, no one lives in Terezin and it was truly taken over by the Nazis. People still live in Brandenberg and well, you just know that life goes on and trying to rebuild the community.
We had a bagel lunch and listened to our Brandenberg guide who was German and not Jewish give a talk in German while Jasper translated. Again, we found ourselves in "lost-in-translation" position and lost concentration. So I never really learned much about the Russian community.
Before we left Brandenberg, we visited the old Jewish cemetery. The first thing I noticed was that the ground was flat with a bunch of dirt mounts which obviously meant burial sites. The Nazis razed the cemetery and converted the area into a soccer field! So after they left, the Jewish cemetery was restored through a building of a wall that listed all the buried and it's really beautiful. Along one side was a fence that was supposed to resemble an old Jewish town with cut-outs of houses and shops. We recited the kaddish and put stones on the wall. The cemetery dated back to mid-1850s... so it was pretty old.
Once we arrived back in Berlin, I made most of the short time I had to visit the Dom (Cathedral). It was just stunning! Compared to the cathedrals that I visited in Spain, I felt much more welcomed. Maybe it was the choir singing when I walked in. Or it's just that the Protestant church never really kicked out the Jews as harshly as the Catholic church during the Inquisition. Anyway, it's mostly beautiful wood and marble inside. The Dom took on the Gothic look. I sat there to listen for a bit and then climbed up to the gallery. After that, I saw some people coming down from some stairs so curiosity took over. I found myself climbing a total of 277 steps from the first floor all the way up to the dome that took visitors outside!!! So I had the most spectacular view of Berlin at twilight. I could see the clock tower, the ferris wheel, various buildings lighting up....
I climbed back down and tried to get out. Apparently, you couldn't get out in the same way you came in so I jokingly told myself that the Christians were trying to trap the Jews for religious reasons. Anyhow, I found the exit but it took a long, long time. The path took me to a very interesting room: the gravesite. I sighed when I saw it because I figured it had to be all priests and bishops, right? Then I saw two royal crowns on a coffin each and wondered if maybe a king was here.... So I stopped and started reading the plaques. I found Frederick Wheilhem II!!! That was SO cool to see parts of the royal family there.
I quickly made my way back- I realized how I was actually getting to know my way around Berlin. I know some people might think it's strange that I'd go out by myself but why let anything hold me back?
For Shabbat, some of us went to the New Synagogue for services and it was just okay. We had a bit of hard time following the services even though it was all in Hebrew (except for some sermon on Jacob in German). We managed to meet a couple of people afterwards to find out what was like to live as a Jew in Germany. One man was born in Germany to American parents who came because of music. A woman was there from Haifa, Israel who moved to Berlin over 30 years ago. She still spoke with a very, very heavy Israeli accent. Hila, one of the girls in my group, spoke in Hebrew with her to find out her story. Her husband found a job in music in Berlin and moved and she followed. They have their children in Israel. She said that the community's very close knit that many Jews feel comfortable being in Germany.
For dinner, we went to a delicious Israeli restaurant with falafels! And the best eggplant "parm" I've ever had. We did the Shabbat rituals in the restaurant (I think we pretty much had the place to ourselves) so that was enough even though the wine was unforgivable awful. I spent a lot of time making conversations with Jonah about being Jewish, relationship to Israel, and growing up on upper West Side in NYC. It was then that I found out that Second Avenue deli would be re-opening! I was so excited!
Half the people went out. I was just beyond exhaustion and I just wanted to get up in the morning to explore my last day in Berlin.... not enough hours in the way to see this amazing city!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Holocaust in Germany
Today was all about the Holocaust.
First, we visited the Wannasee Villa where the Final Solution was implemented in January 1942. The place was renovated into a museum so there wasn't really a feeling of obvious eerie of actually being there. But when I looked out to the lake behind the house, I felt real chills as I looked behind me to see a diagram of the SS men. The historian, who guided us, gave us a lecture on the Wannasee Conference right in the same room as these men agreed on the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Then we moved to other exhibitions (it was essentially a small, focused Holocaust museum on the Nazis' plans to kill the Jews). He talked about the death and concentrations camps and the mass killings and played a couple of eyewitness testimonies. Obviously, you shouldn't surprised to konw that I wasn't at least surprised by some of the questions that other kids asked that were just a little obvious to me ("why so many camps are located in Poland? Not Germany?" or "Oh, I didn't know that there were so many Jews in Poland!") Lena asked the historian how he got started on this Holocaust thing. He said th
at he didn't hear much about it for a very long time and then just sort of dove into it and did his community service at Yad Vashem. Afterward, I asked him if he knew anyone at Yad Vashem that I had worked with- it was over 10 years ago. Oh well.
Lena asked how I liked this particular museum knowing that I had experiences with Yad Vashem and USHMM. I told her that I keep an open mind when I visit different countries because their experiences were different and I'm no judge to do that. I mean, now I realize the museums in the US and Israel have their own purposes and how they want to portray themselves. For example, the USHMM is far more of a very American museum with its universal theme whereas Yad Vashem is very, very Jewish. This one was outright honest that it even included some facts and pictures I had never seen before (ex: the gorges at Babi Yar). Lena said that many of the Eastern European countries have only begun to open up their Holocaust memorials and museums and they're just very honest about it and it's just new to the public.
We went to Track 17 memorial. I think this was my most emotional moment so far with the Holocaust. There's a short stretch of tracks that used to hold trains that'd stop to pick up Berlin Jews. Obviously, this was separated from the regular tracks that the Metro (or "meeeeeetro" as the Germans say) travel on. Along the tracks on both sides is a section of metal strip that had the date of pick-up, number of Jews, Berlin to _____. I noticed that many of them went to Theresienstadt, which where I was last February, with only exactly 100 Jews from 1941 to 1942 and parts of 1943 and 1944 (obviously the numbers declined by then). I decided to count how many deportations to Theresienstadt took place.... I only was able to count one side and honestly, after counting 60 strips of different places, it just a bit overwhelming that there wasn't just one or ten large deportations from 1941 to 1945 but over 100 from Berlin alone. Theresienstadt dominated until Auschwitz was built and then the deportations alternated between the two places. The trains also went to Riga, Warsaw, Kovno, Lodz, and a couple of other places. When all of these came together, including the counting aloud, I just felt that loss of all the Jews. I'll say that this is my place in Germany to feel that loss and connection with the Holocaust.
Afterward, we had pasta lunch with the Holocaust survivor. His story was quite interesting. He wanted to create themes as to help relate with the audience and thought he'd be able to do music until he found out that only like 5 of us were involved. So he ticked off places- Germany, China, Israel, or the US. Immediately, I asked him to tell us about China as I explained to him that I had heard many survivors due to my internship experiences at the USHMM but no one ever talked about China. Unfortunately, we had to cut it short as the restaurant was kind of small and people were coming in for lunch. So we finished up his talk on the bus later. He was about 10 when he and his family left Germany for Shanghai which required no visa in 1938. Then they went to some Russian town in very northern part of China. They stayed until 1947 in which they moved to Israel. They also lived in the US afterward because life was too hard in Israel for them to actually want to start over again. It was just not the place to be for them. So when they lived in the US, they lived in south Florida. Finally, the survivor visited Berlin in 1961 just before the Wall was built just to see how he felt about being back in Germany. The family had never really felt at home anywhere so Germany was their last option. So anyway, the survivor went and felt right at home and encouraged his family to follow him in 1963. His parents were ecstatic to be able to speak in their language and be part of their culture. That's their happy ever after-they've been living in Germany since. He still lives in Berlin and doesn't let his memories get to him. He also talked about Israel and the meaning of the War of 1967 as a heroic struggle for the Jews. It was so great to hear him talk about 1967 like that as a survivor.
When we left him, we went to the Holocaust Memorial site that we were supposed to visit yesterday . It was... very, very interesting . We didn't have the time to go "underground" to see the exhibitions. Basically, it looks like a graveyard with lots of stone blocks of different height lined up neatly in rows, taking up an entire block. The ground was uneven. As I went through the walls, (though the architect had no real purpose in his design) I felt as if I was a nervous Jew being crowded by dangers with the ground being uneven as an added effect.
I want to apologize for not posting any pictures on the Holocaust. For me, and as all others should too, it's just disrespectful to take photographs or film videos of memorial sites as it's just not enough to show respect for the murdered. These victims should be visited personally, not showed around the world through artificial means.
Then, we had 4 hours to ourselves to do whatever we wanted to. Some people wanted to sit and have coffee and others wanted to nap a bit. But with my vision, I had to get going if I wanted to see much of Berlin in daylight as I could (it gets dark by 4 PM!!!). It was 3.... So anyway, I went off on my own to walk towards the Brandenberger Tor (Gate). I was able to get up close to different buildings along the way including the Egyptian/Papyrus Museum, the Berlin Dom (Cathedral), the ice skating rink (which I might do on Saturday for a bit!), etc. Finally I got to Brandenberg Gate and just couldn't keep my eyes off it. It's really a majestic thing with that Christmas tree for an added effect in front of it. I picked up some Starbucks latte (most expensive I've ever bought in my entire life for 5.5 euros) and just stood there, sipping, while looking at the Tor. If I had a peace spot, this is it. I have a special spot in every city that I spend time in where I can just look 
and spend time alone with my thoughts. I think that the Brandenberger Gate is different for me- it's not about the Holocaust or the Jews. Its majesty and historical symbolism strike me as something that anything's possible and life can be beautiful. This was where the first part of the Berlin Wall was torn down.... All of my thoughts about the Holocaust earlier today just disappeared and I was able to relax and just enjoy being in Germany.
Then I walked back in the opposite direction, trying to head for the hotel. Of course, I saw a big, big building for the VW dealership so no surprise that I'd go in for my brother. There wasn't anything to get for him except for a 18,000 euro Polo.... too expensive for a 18th birthday present!
Tonight, the group and I went to a classical concert playing Christmas music. It was very, very nice. We all liked it and were impressed by the European style orchestra hall. It's so regal- it's better to be here than in the Lincoln Center in the US. The music was beautiful and the maestro was so graceful in his hands movements. Being jetlagged for the second time, I snoozed for a bit though I could hear the music playing through my brain (never got any REM).
Afterwards, we all went out to an Italian restaurant for late-night munchies and drinks. It was so fun!
First, we visited the Wannasee Villa where the Final Solution was implemented in January 1942. The place was renovated into a museum so there wasn't really a feeling of obvious eerie of actually being there. But when I looked out to the lake behind the house, I felt real chills as I looked behind me to see a diagram of the SS men. The historian, who guided us, gave us a lecture on the Wannasee Conference right in the same room as these men agreed on the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Then we moved to other exhibitions (it was essentially a small, focused Holocaust museum on the Nazis' plans to kill the Jews). He talked about the death and concentrations camps and the mass killings and played a couple of eyewitness testimonies. Obviously, you shouldn't surprised to konw that I wasn't at least surprised by some of the questions that other kids asked that were just a little obvious to me ("why so many camps are located in Poland? Not Germany?" or "Oh, I didn't know that there were so many Jews in Poland!") Lena asked the historian how he got started on this Holocaust thing. He said th
at he didn't hear much about it for a very long time and then just sort of dove into it and did his community service at Yad Vashem. Afterward, I asked him if he knew anyone at Yad Vashem that I had worked with- it was over 10 years ago. Oh well.Lena asked how I liked this particular museum knowing that I had experiences with Yad Vashem and USHMM. I told her that I keep an open mind when I visit different countries because their experiences were different and I'm no judge to do that. I mean, now I realize the museums in the US and Israel have their own purposes and how they want to portray themselves. For example, the USHMM is far more of a very American museum with its universal theme whereas Yad Vashem is very, very Jewish. This one was outright honest that it even included some facts and pictures I had never seen before (ex: the gorges at Babi Yar). Lena said that many of the Eastern European countries have only begun to open up their Holocaust memorials and museums and they're just very honest about it and it's just new to the public.
We went to Track 17 memorial. I think this was my most emotional moment so far with the Holocaust. There's a short stretch of tracks that used to hold trains that'd stop to pick up Berlin Jews. Obviously, this was separated from the regular tracks that the Metro (or "meeeeeetro" as the Germans say) travel on. Along the tracks on both sides is a section of metal strip that had the date of pick-up, number of Jews, Berlin to _____. I noticed that many of them went to Theresienstadt, which where I was last February, with only exactly 100 Jews from 1941 to 1942 and parts of 1943 and 1944 (obviously the numbers declined by then). I decided to count how many deportations to Theresienstadt took place.... I only was able to count one side and honestly, after counting 60 strips of different places, it just a bit overwhelming that there wasn't just one or ten large deportations from 1941 to 1945 but over 100 from Berlin alone. Theresienstadt dominated until Auschwitz was built and then the deportations alternated between the two places. The trains also went to Riga, Warsaw, Kovno, Lodz, and a couple of other places. When all of these came together, including the counting aloud, I just felt that loss of all the Jews. I'll say that this is my place in Germany to feel that loss and connection with the Holocaust.
Afterward, we had pasta lunch with the Holocaust survivor. His story was quite interesting. He wanted to create themes as to help relate with the audience and thought he'd be able to do music until he found out that only like 5 of us were involved. So he ticked off places- Germany, China, Israel, or the US. Immediately, I asked him to tell us about China as I explained to him that I had heard many survivors due to my internship experiences at the USHMM but no one ever talked about China. Unfortunately, we had to cut it short as the restaurant was kind of small and people were coming in for lunch. So we finished up his talk on the bus later. He was about 10 when he and his family left Germany for Shanghai which required no visa in 1938. Then they went to some Russian town in very northern part of China. They stayed until 1947 in which they moved to Israel. They also lived in the US afterward because life was too hard in Israel for them to actually want to start over again. It was just not the place to be for them. So when they lived in the US, they lived in south Florida. Finally, the survivor visited Berlin in 1961 just before the Wall was built just to see how he felt about being back in Germany. The family had never really felt at home anywhere so Germany was their last option. So anyway, the survivor went and felt right at home and encouraged his family to follow him in 1963. His parents were ecstatic to be able to speak in their language and be part of their culture. That's their happy ever after-they've been living in Germany since. He still lives in Berlin and doesn't let his memories get to him. He also talked about Israel and the meaning of the War of 1967 as a heroic struggle for the Jews. It was so great to hear him talk about 1967 like that as a survivor.
When we left him, we went to the Holocaust Memorial site that we were supposed to visit yesterday . It was... very, very interesting . We didn't have the time to go "underground" to see the exhibitions. Basically, it looks like a graveyard with lots of stone blocks of different height lined up neatly in rows, taking up an entire block. The ground was uneven. As I went through the walls, (though the architect had no real purpose in his design) I felt as if I was a nervous Jew being crowded by dangers with the ground being uneven as an added effect.
I want to apologize for not posting any pictures on the Holocaust. For me, and as all others should too, it's just disrespectful to take photographs or film videos of memorial sites as it's just not enough to show respect for the murdered. These victims should be visited personally, not showed around the world through artificial means.
Then, we had 4 hours to ourselves to do whatever we wanted to. Some people wanted to sit and have coffee and others wanted to nap a bit. But with my vision, I had to get going if I wanted to see much of Berlin in daylight as I could (it gets dark by 4 PM!!!). It was 3.... So anyway, I went off on my own to walk towards the Brandenberger Tor (Gate). I was able to get up close to different buildings along the way including the Egyptian/Papyrus Museum, the Berlin Dom (Cathedral), the ice skating rink (which I might do on Saturday for a bit!), etc. Finally I got to Brandenberg Gate and just couldn't keep my eyes off it. It's really a majestic thing with that Christmas tree for an added effect in front of it. I picked up some Starbucks latte (most expensive I've ever bought in my entire life for 5.5 euros) and just stood there, sipping, while looking at the Tor. If I had a peace spot, this is it. I have a special spot in every city that I spend time in where I can just look 
and spend time alone with my thoughts. I think that the Brandenberger Gate is different for me- it's not about the Holocaust or the Jews. Its majesty and historical symbolism strike me as something that anything's possible and life can be beautiful. This was where the first part of the Berlin Wall was torn down.... All of my thoughts about the Holocaust earlier today just disappeared and I was able to relax and just enjoy being in Germany.Then I walked back in the opposite direction, trying to head for the hotel. Of course, I saw a big, big building for the VW dealership so no surprise that I'd go in for my brother. There wasn't anything to get for him except for a 18,000 euro Polo.... too expensive for a 18th birthday present!
Tonight, the group and I went to a classical concert playing Christmas music. It was very, very nice. We all liked it and were impressed by the European style orchestra hall. It's so regal- it's better to be here than in the Lincoln Center in the US. The music was beautiful and the maestro was so graceful in his hands movements. Being jetlagged for the second time, I snoozed for a bit though I could hear the music playing through my brain (never got any REM).Afterwards, we all went out to an Italian restaurant for late-night munchies and drinks. It was so fun!
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.
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?
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