Each time we have entered Germany I have struggled with the big issues of the impact of WW2 and how the country reconciled with the atrocities that resulted in such mass murder of Jews, along with gypsies, disabled, homosexuals and anyone different to the Arian ideal, or in opposition to the Nazi regime.
Besides exploring shops and yet more glittering Christmas markets my mind has been full of questions about how this nation acknowledges the past and still moves on for a better future. Interspersed with all of this is an image of John Cleese as Basil Faulty shouting " and don't mention the war ", and then doing his crazy nazi goose step and hitler salute. I think the quirky side of my sense of humour has been an inheritance from dad, who often had quite convoluted ways of working to the point or story, but usually amongst it all was some weird humour that not everyone got.
Late on the evening of our first night we settled in to watch a movie. I was initially looking for WW2 documentaries, but as I was in Deutschland, all those available on netflix were in German.
And so we watched The Boy In Striped Pajamas. We had both seen this before, yet forgotten the ending, and as the movie progressed, I hoped for a happy ending, but knew that given the subject was the holocaust, the dreaded inevitable end could offer no respite.
This just reinforced the many questions I had, about how Germany had progressed, what is remembered, and what is felt. The next morning I googled the topic, read a few articles about how the war was taught in schools, and the difficultly the German nation had in expressing national pride for so long. I then widened my search wondering what NZ sites say around our own chequered history, and remembering it was only very recently that the Australian government made an apology to the aborigines, and despite this, knowing there are many prejudices still rife in thier country.
During our stay in Europe and the UK, the migrant problems have been center news, and just a week ago Paris had suffered another terrorist attack. And through many of the countries we visited we came across holocust and war memorials. And not forgetting that during our entire drive for the first 6 weeks in the van, we were topped and tailed with registration plates dislaying Dachau.
With all this on my shoulders, along with developing a rudeamentary understanding of the impact of socialism and Russian communist influences in the eastern parts, we went off to visit the Cold War memorial. Here we watched a very informative mini documentary that explained how at the end of the Second World War Germany was divided between the Americans, British, Russia and France. However very soon after this was settled, the Russians began asserting a more restrictive position and the alliance broke down, and as this occurred, the building and subsequent fortifications of the Berlin wall commenced, becoming the physical symbol of the Cold War.
I hadn't understood much of this previously, and so it was interesting to learn that the fortifications of the wall on the east side developed slowly over time. The memorial was well displayed with images of families fleeing, and desperate people jumping from apartment windows that were due to be bricked up as access to the west was tightened. Again, we saw the names and faces of many who had died trying to oppose the wall, or escape from the harsh police state they were under.
The following day we went to the Berlin Jewish Museum. This is set in a specially designed building, that is meant to continue the experience of symbolism and loss. The difference with this museum, was that it traced the experiences of Judaism starting way back in the 10th and 11th centuries, when antisemetisiam really started, with the crusaders, who on their way to the holy lands, decided the Jews had caused the cruicifiction of Christ so may as well wipe them out along the way.
The display recounted the traumas and persecutions Jews had been experiencing over the centuries, and built the context that then lead to yet another rise in antisemetisiam in the late 1800's. Information about the following 2 world wars followed, and then in a special area more detailed images and relics from the holocaust. One tiny detail that I recounted to heather over coffee several days later still managed to bring us to tears, as I described a letter I saw, sent by a mother who had sent her children on to Switzerland when concerns about safety increased. She and her husband had intended to join them later, but in this last letter she sent, she desciribed how full her heart felt and how small the words on paper were. They realised they had stayed too late, and she and her husband were later killed in a nazi concentration camp.
The museum was well presented and very informative. But I was quite disturbed when in a display nearing the end, posts of images and recordings spoke of the 1960's in Germany when a lawyer attempted to bring a host of nazi officials to trial. This display emphasised the injustice of the courts, that even when cases were proven, the sentences pronounced were weak and inconsequential.
With yet more questions we slowly started to wander towards the exit. At the very start the audio guide had stated that the idenfiable staff about the building could be approached for assistance. I just couldn't leave, without trying to gain some understanding of what Germany was today, and if I couldn't ask these questions in a Jewish museum, where could I. So I tentatively approached the next staff member I came across and asked if I could ask a few questions. Yes. So I attempted to explained my confusion about what the government stand was, in response to the issues highlighted by the 1960's trials. The man I was speaking to just looked at me, staring. I'm sorry, perhaps I had not explained myself so I made another attempt, not that my question was at all well thought out, or articulated. The man looked increasingly alarmed, and when I asked if he understood me, he replied Yes, and then in a flurry, said he couldn't help me, to ask his colleagues, and quickly moved away. Ahead of me, Heather was wondering what I was up too. We again started to move towards the exit area, but I felt almost more confused now. So in a last ditch attempt, I spied a staff member wearing the skull cap, so I tentatively walked up to him and asked again if I could ask some questions. Yes he replied, though I couldn't read his response. I tried again to explain my question. How had Germany as a nation acknowledged the holocaust, and had the country addressed the issues (but of course I was much less articulate). I felt a hesitancy in his responses to me, and his body language seemed to show someone who wanted to move away. Maybe this was an issue of talking across languages, or was the topic still too sensitive. But he seemed to persevere, and stated that in relation to my question about the 1960's period, that many who had benefited from the nazi regime were still part of government, high officials and the judiciary, so of course they might not support the attempt to bring about justice. He went on to say that there were many nazi's in Germany today, but that was there problem, and not his problem. Yes the government had acknowledged the holocaust. We struggled on with a difficult and tense corridor conversation, and I was unsure if I had stepped too far. But then he explained that he had a New Zealand colleague who also worked at the museum, and he was sorry that he was not working this day, as perhaps he could have explained things better, and assisted me. He told me that NZ had a Jewish prime minister, something Heather and I didn't know about our leader John Key. Once we got a dialogue established, it seemed hard to find a place to end it, and though I still felt a tension in the conversation, he thanked us for our questions and attempts to understand.
From here we had planned to go to the Berlin holocaust memorial, but we had endured enough for the day and over coffee devised a change to our itinerary.
We located the halocaust memorial the following day, and were impressed at the size and structure of the area. Huge concrete blocks lay out a vast grid, and while initially some variations in height are obvious, once you walk through the piece, the undulating ground soon leaves you hidden in a mass grid of blocks. The information centre was closed for refurbishment, and I must say I was almost relived, but walking through the structure, we had discussed the symbolism the memorial represented to us. One final piece of the puzzle came when, at the plaque naming the memorial, I read that this hadn't been established until 2004.
Post Script - this has been a hard piece to write, set amongst the joys and fun of travel and new experiences, and too easy to make light of murder on such a huge scale, in a world where we are easily desensitised to death, destruction, and history.
