Holocaust Memorial of Berlin

Another stop on our tour was the memorial to the Jews killed in the Holocaust (just for the Jewish people, they have separate memorials for the other groups that are either built or are currently under construction).  The memorial is a series of large grey blocks in different heights.  The outside has blocks short enough to walk over while the center has tall blocks that loom over you, closing you in, as you walk through.  There are over 2,000 blocks in all and the memorial takes about a block of the City (near the Brandenburg gate...and across the street from Hitler's bunker...so pretty centrally located).  So far, sounds good: the location, the looming blocks that cause you to question their meaning, and the fact that the Germans are acknowledging the responsibility for one of the largest crimes against humanity.  However there is one major problem with the memorial that visitors cannot simply ignore: the anti-graffiti paint. 

The Grey smooth blocks do not have a single mark anywhere on all 2,000 of them.  No "John + Kate = <3" from school children and no profanity due to the very expensive anti-graffiti paint.  Any markings, paint, blood, dirt...anything just wipes right off.  The idea of it, I'm sure, was to preserve the integrity and serious nature of the memorial.  The glaring problem comes not from the product but the product's manufacturer...who has a history of business with the Germans.  The company that manufactures and sells the paint is the same company that manufactured and sold Zyclon B (the gas used in the chambers by the Nazi's to murder over 6 million Jews).  This company has made a profit from killing and remembering those they killed. 

Sleepin' with the Fishes

Well as promised, a little more info about Berlin!

Berlin has really pushed to market itself as a liberal and tolerant city (having been marred as a whole during WWII they are now trying to completely over ride the former image of Germany...at any cost).  Prostitution is 100% legal--they have a union and pay taxes.  The main strip for the Johns to pick up prostitutes was recently under construction to repair the cable car track.  This closed the street for an entire month (apparently the Dept of Transportation in Germany is just as fast as the ones in the US).  The prostitute union banned together and sued the state of Germany for lost wages...and WON!  The sum was worth a couple of thousand for each worker (the shops and bakery on the same street got nothing for the month).  

On our tour we saw where an exhibit from Chilean artist Evaristti was being prepared for his next controversial piece.  His last exhibit (which was shut down by PETA) was a table with 10 blenders, plugged in and fully functioning, with live goldfish swimming around inside awaiting the public to decide their fates (coincidentally after many hours only 3 of the blenders had the button pushed).  His next piece promises to leave the public with an even deeper moral dilemma.  He has befriended a death row inmate in Texas who has agreed to donate his body for the artist's use.  He plans to freeze dry it into pellets for fish food and leave the pellets out for the audience to feed the tank of goldfish.  Now if people do not use the pellets to feed the fish the fish will die (they will have no other food source)...so to save the fish (which was the cry of PETA at his last exhibit) the audience has to use the inmates remains.

What would you do if you were in the audience?

Berlin

Hello Everyone!

There is a lot to catch up with (and only a short lunch break to do it).  Since my last post I have been on the move.  Two weekends ago was my trip to Berlin (and my first attempt since Prague at a successful weekend trip that wasn't just a day trip).  It was FREEZING (I'm so glad we went earlier this fall rather than later) but wonderful.  We caught the night train at 1:30am (ugh...I can't stay up that late anymore) and got into Berlin around 7:30 Sat morning (after a really good night sleep in the train).  We found our hostel (the Circus Hostel) in East Berlin and then joined a walking tour of the city that left at 10:30 that morning (only to return at 6:30 that night...it was quite a jaunt around the City).  We saw everything that I wanted to see in Berlin on our tour.  And, as my traveling experiences seem to work out, we picked the perfect weekend to go to Berlin.  They were having a giant celebration (throughout Germany but especially in Berlin) to celebrate the reunification of Germany.  So there were people everywhere and lots of festivities to keep us busy.  That night we went out for Russian food and then to a wine sampling party (for only 2 Euro...all the wine you cared to "sample") and then off to bed by 11p for me.  The next day we went to one of the early Sunday morning markets (picture a giant garage sale with German trinkets).  That is the weekend at a glance, I have to work now.  More on Berlin (and my weekend in Paris!) to come.