More of Berlin

The day following our walking tour, my friends and I explored the nearby Nikoleiviertel neighbourhood while my sister went to a church service in the Berliner Dom.  This is a smallish, charming, cobblestoned area near Alexanderplatz and beside the Spree River.  As we walked there, along Rosenstrasse to get there, we noticed a memorial.  During our walking tour, our guide had mentioned something about a protest on Rosenstrasse during the war.  It turns out it was quite significant.  The Rosenstrasse protest on Rosenstraße ("Rose street") took place in Berlin during February and March 1943.  This demonstration was initiated and sustained by the non-Jewish wives and relatives of Jewish men and Mischlinge, those of mixed Jewish and Aryan heritage, who had been arrested and targeted for deportation, based on the racial policy of Nazi Germany. The protests, which occurred over the course of seven days, continued until the men being held were released by the Gestapo. The protest is considered to be a significant event in German history as it is the only mass public demonstration by Germans in the Third Reich against the deportation of Jews.  We stopped at the moving memorial commemorating this event.  The other photos are of the Nicoleiviertel neighbourhood.

Later that same day, we toured the Reichstag building.  To do this, you have to register in advance to get a timed entry.  Once you show your passport and go through security, you walked over to enter the large impressive building which is the seat of the German government.  Inside, you walk up the long ramp which takes you to the top of the building.  It is all glass and from it, you get impressive views across the city - or at least you would if the weather was cooperating!

From there, we walked toward Checkpoint Charlie to the Topography of Terror.  Near a section of the intact Berlin Wall, the Topography of Terror is an interesting history museum housed in the former Gestapo and SS headquarters between 1933 and 1945 – both words brought fear to all Germans – and others!  During the Nazi era, the power of these two organizations was absolute.  One had merely to say they thought their neighbour might be a Jew or against the Nazis and it was enough to have them dragged in, interrogated or even tortured.  During our tour yesterday, our guide had mentioned that the these two organizations were so powerful that they had their own laws and currency which meant they operated over and above the general population and that gave them a significant amount of power. You could spend hours here reading the details and looking at the photos which chronicle this scary time in Germany's history.  I admire the way this country sustains awareness of that part of its history when so many countries try to sweep ugly parts of their past under the carpet.  There is no way to describe a visit to this museum other than disturbing!

The next day, we continued our quest to understand this city by visiting the East Side Gallery and learning more about the Cold War.  More about that in the next blog.