Somusing

When we were in Berlin, we visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe a couple of times, and it really made an impression on me. The memorial takes up a large city block, and as you approach it, there's not much to see. It just looks like a bunch of concrete rectangles of the same width and depth but of different heights, not very tall or imposing. Some of the blocks on the edge are even flush with the pavement. But as you come up alongside it and look down the rows, you see that the ground slopes down and the blocks get very tall. You can walk around inside the memorial, and it feels pretty weird. Oppressive, dark, cold, disorienting. Some people think the blocks are like graves, but I thought they were more a representation of the laws and orders and dangers that slowly engulfed the Jews until they were buried so deeply in the oppression that they could disappear in huge numbers without much comment from anyone. Those orders might have seemed like...

On the way out of Dresden by the train station, a mysterious and unlabeled little statue of a donkey standing on a table, pulling off the pants of someone crouched below: And at the Hauptbahnhof, the pillar of oversized Ritter Sport chocolate bar wrappers the kids love to see: Then a train ride north to Berlin: Walking around to see lots of beloved sights in Berlin Mitte (center), we saw new government buildings, the main train station, a bell tower, the Brandenburger Tor = Brandenburg gate that was the icon of divided and reunified Berlin: The Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas = memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe : Socialist mural behind our free walking tour group, Checkpoint Charlie , cobblestone line found around the city where the Berlin Wall used to be, and some current art on Berlin Wall-like concrete slabs highlighting new tyrants: Lots of places to see: Gendarmenmarkt , Humboldt University, an outdoor library reading room, the mourning ...