Germany specifically addresses its heinous past transgressions in a strategic model called a "landscape of remembrance" or "memorial landscapes." This method brings history straight into view for modern day citizens. There is no option for today's Germans to avoid the lessons learned from the Holocaust or divided Germany. In America, for example, the opposite tends to be true. When we want to learn more about slavery or the Civil Rights Movement, we have to seek it out -- travel to those locations, research historical texts, journey to find the knowledge. But after restructuring their country post-WWII, Germans knew they had to keep those atrocities at the forefront of their memories to ensure they never repeat those unbearable mistakes.
As seen in the photographs above, Germany has built both small and large memorials directly in citizens' everyday pathways. Picture one is one of the most powerful moments I encountered in Deutschland (that's what Germans call Germany). Scattered throughout Europe, planted in city streets and sidewalks, commemorative brass plaques eternalize the lives that were lost in the Holocaust. Called the Stolpersteine (in English: “stumbling stones”), the plaques commemorate the victims of the Nazi regime. They include the names, dates, and last known locations of missing/murdered Jews. Photo two is located in the center of Bonn along a populer walking path beside the Rhine River, the old capital of Germany. After WWII, remaining citizens used the remaining brick rubel from the local bombed Jewish syngoguge to build this Star of David memorial. With how bicycle and pedestrian based Bonn is, people travel past this monument daily at least. Photo three is a departure of the others on this post and is one of the few photos I took memorializing the Berlin Wall period. Of course, there are Wall sections still on display throughout Berlin also, as well as the Checkpoint Charlie location, but this subtle brick pathway runs throughout the entire huge city (large than Chicago) denoting the past Wall location. In photo four, you see a Jewish memorial mural located in a city plaza also beside a busy thoroughfare. Photo five was one of my strangest moments in Berlin -- no the strangest. This is Hitler's death location. In order to ensure that this site never becomes a pilgrimage site or shrine to nationalism/racism/xenophobia, Germans simply built a parking lot above the old bunker and beside it a plain, regular apartment building. How strange would it be to just live every day life right where Adolf Hitler died and just park my car on top of that site? We all found it pretty perfect as a way to recognize how unremarkable we all find him. Photos six, seven, and eight all come from my visit to the Murdered Jews Memorial near the Brandenburg Gate. As described many times above, this remembrance site sits in the middle of very busy Germany, and at first, it seems so simple. You first walk up to what looks like a few dozen concrete boxes. But as you move into the structure, you slowly realize it is made up of hundreds of blocks, and they gradually grow in size. Not only that, but as you walk, further into them, the slowly grow taller and taller until they are towering over you. Suddenly, you find yourself in a deep pit with barely any light with this pressing weight pushing down on you from all sides. To make matters even more extreme, I first visited this site at night. I would highly recommend that for your first viewing. To have no crowds and pure darkness made it so much more powerful than it already is. The memorial is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year because it requires no staff and is simply a part of the sidewalk square on that block. Did you notice all the clear symbolism in my description -- the ever-enveloping feeling of pressure and darkness, looming, growing, a pit, you underestimate it at first . . . I could talk about this memorial for an hour if you ever want to ask me about it in person. Please do. Photos nine through sixteen are all related as well as they were taken on my concentration camp visit to Sachsenhausen. This visit was optional on our trip as many individuals did not feel comfortable with such a visit. Thankfully, one of my travel colleagues, who speaks fluent German, helped navigate us through an hour of public transportation to get to one of the Berlin suburbs where Sachsenhausen still remains. It served as one of the Nazi parties first ever work camps for a decade before it also turned into a death camp. The craziest part to witness was how the suburban town sits right next to it and surrounds it. You cannot help but sit there and wonder how they allowed this to go on in their town. How did it slowly start and convince citizens it was an acceptable enterprise? Once it grew and grew, didn't they all know what was truly happening behind the walls. Of course, it was such a solemn visit, and even though the sun was beat down 100 degrees hot that day, we both agreed it was the last place on Earth where we would ever complain. To witness actual crematorium chambers, medical experiment rooms, and Jewish bunks are feelings I will never forget. It seems appropriate that the city it sits amongst be forced to remember it forever as well. Finally, photos fifteen and sixteen are both located in the Humboldt University square as a memorial to all the book burnings that were held throughout Berlin. It is hard to see in the photographs, but this is a plaque placed in the ground beside a giant see-through glass in the ground. Below the glass is a full sized room with floor to ceiling bookshelves -- completely empty, signifying the great loss of research and literature especially at the universities because of the fires. I also witnessed bronze sculptures of Holocaust families, children, and individuals on all different street corners in Berlin. But you can bet your bottom dollar there wasn't one single statue or shrine for a Nazi. I wish America and other countries would take thoughtful note of this landscape of remembrance. It is not only powerful, but more importantly, helpful.
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AuthorSophie -- a teacher, mother, wife, traveler, reader, camper, and Mizzou Tiger Archives
July 2022
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