My last full day in Berlin was left to explore the atrocities of Nazi Germany. The ‘Topography of Terror’ is an open air museum based at the site of the old Gestapo/SS headquarters, now demolished. The new museum is still being built & in the meantime, they’ve established a pictographically history along a path on the site. Museum entry was free to all visitors.
I was moved to tears - a powerful introduction to the monstrous crimes perpetrated by the Nazis. And while wandering along & reading all about the history, I couldn’t help but think about the news story I saw only a few nights beforehand about the rise of the far right extremists in Hungary trying to clamp down on the Roma (gypsies) who they blamed for the crime sweeping the country. It all sounded far too familiar. How in trying times we continue to blame the ‘other’ for all of our problems. We still haven’t learned from history.
Then on to the Jewish Museum, which was an incredible architectural building. I had always wondered why the Jewish people had been the target for so much hatred throughout history. It was while I wandered through the Jewish museum that I finally understood why. How myths & lies and the fear of difference had built a severe intolerance to these people. And it was here that I also finally understood why the Jewish people needed to have their own homeland after being denied assimilation again & again in so many countries - never permitted to completely fit in anywhere.
I was moved to tears - a powerful introduction to the monstrous crimes perpetrated by the Nazis. And while wandering along & reading all about the history, I couldn’t help but think about the news story I saw only a few nights beforehand about the rise of the far right extremists in Hungary trying to clamp down on the Roma (gypsies) who they blamed for the crime sweeping the country. It all sounded far too familiar. How in trying times we continue to blame the ‘other’ for all of our problems. We still haven’t learned from history.
Then on to the Jewish Museum, which was an incredible architectural building. I had always wondered why the Jewish people had been the target for so much hatred throughout history. It was while I wandered through the Jewish museum that I finally understood why. How myths & lies and the fear of difference had built a severe intolerance to these people. And it was here that I also finally understood why the Jewish people needed to have their own homeland after being denied assimilation again & again in so many countries - never permitted to completely fit in anywhere.
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