I am continuing my posts about my trip to Eastern Europe with my second day in Berlin. It was another day that brought us back into the horrors of the Holocaust. I can honestly say that despite the constant reminders of how hate can devolve into barbarism there were many stories we learned about that made me realize that there were still individuals who were willing to risk everything to help save others. These people are known as Righteous Among the Nations. This designation is an honorific given to non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis by the State of Israel. These people should never be forgotten and I am honored to know their stories and be able to share them with others.
Sunday October 14, 2018 – Berlin, Germany
Our first stop today was at Checkpoint Charlie probably the most famous crossing points between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. It was named Checkpoint Charlie because “Charlie” is the NATO phonetic designation for the letter “C”. The barrier and checkpoint booth, the flag and the sandbags are all based on the original site but are simply replicas. The original is now on display at the Allied Museum in Berlin. The checkpoint was opened in August 1961 only one month before I was born. It was active until it closed in June 1990. The last time I saw this checkpoint was in 1978 when I visited East Berlin as part of a European tour I was on with my high school. When we got to the checkpoint the East German police pulled us all off the bus so that they could search the bus before letting us through. Then they checked each person’s passport before letting them back on the bus. I had grown a scruffy beard while on the trip. So when I got to the front of the line, they pushed me off to the side and kept my passport. They then came over and spoke to me only in German. I kept trying to explain that I didn’t understand. It wasn’t until my teacher came over and spoke to them that they finally returned my passport and let me on the bus. My teacher told me they pulled me aside because my face didn’t exactly match my passport. It was a scary situation and proved to me that they were not fooling around.
We then boarded the bus and drove over to the Rosenstrasse to see where the very first synagogue was built in Berlin. Jews had come back to Berlin in 1671. The synagogue was built between 1712-1714. It was the main synagogue for Berlin’s Jews until it was superseded by the New Synagogue in 1866. The building was not destroyed during Kristalnacht because it was no longer being used by Jews for religious services. The Nazis had no reason to damage it. However it was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945. The building is no longer there and a park has replaced it.The park where the Old Synagogue (Alte Synagogue) was located is also the location of the Women’s Protest monument. This street protest was made up of Aryan women who were married to Jewish Men and was the only mass public demonstration by Germans in the Third Reich against the deportation of Jews. What triggered the protest was the Fabrikaktion (Factory Action) which was the roundup of the last 6,000 Jews to be deported from Berlin starting February 27, 1943. Most of these remaining Jews were working in Berlin plants or they were working for the Jewish welfare organization. But 1,800 Jewish men were pulled out of the group. This was because they were "privileged Jews", a category exempt from deportation and other anti-Jewish measures by reason of being married to German women or employed as officials of the Jewish organization officially recognized by the German government for the purpose of controlling the Jewish population. These men were housed temporarily at the site of this park in a welfare office for the Jewish community here in central Berlin.
The women of these men got word of what was happening. There was no way this action wouldn’t have been heard of throughout in Berlin. So they gathered outside of the welfare office saying that they would not leave until their husbands had been released. They were even able to get 25 of the men who had already been deported to Auschwitz sent back to Berlin. On March 5, 1943, the SS trying to intimidate the women sent in trucks with machine guns to threaten the women on the Rosenstrasse. Despite the menace of the machine guns aimed at them and the threat to be gunned down, the women remained. Finally on March 6, 1943, Goebbels relented and ordered all of the people imprisoned be released. What an amazing story.
The monument is called the Block of Women and was created by Ingeborg Hunzinger. It serves as a monument to the courage of the women who put their lives at risk to secure the freedom of their husbands. Also in the park is another sculpture of a person seated on a park bench, a poignant reminder that Jews were forbidden to sit on benches at the time. Both are very powerful images that I won’t forget.
We then walked through the area that was once the center of Berlin Jewry. We walked by the Sophienkirche which was the church in East Berlin that Martin Luther King spoke at in September 1964. The buildings in front of the church are pockmarked by all of the bullets that were being fired during the battle for Berlin. While looking at the church’s exterior, Yael pointed out a “stumbling stone”. They are known here as a Stolperstein which are a concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. These stones were created by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992. They are placed at the last place of residency—or, sometimes, work—which was freely chosen by the person before he or she fell victim to Nazi terror. They are very controversial but despite this controversy, the artist and his co-workers have installed about 60,000 stones in more than 1,200 towns and cities throughout Europe.
After we had lunch, we headed over to the Neue (New) Synagoge in Berlin. It was built between 1859 and 1866. It is built in a Moorish architectural style inspired by the buildings in Alhambra Spain. We could see the gilded cupola from far off as we walked to the building. The New Synagogue was consecrated on Rosh Hashanah in 1866 and was the largest synagogue in Europe, with 3,200 seats.
The building was damaged on Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938), when Nazi looters rampaged across Germany, burning synagogues and smashing the few Jewish shops and homes left in the country. It was desecrated and set on fire, but avoided major damage thanks to the efforts of Wilhelm Krützfeld, the local police chief who brought the fire department and who told the Nazis that this building was a major historical building in Berlin and should be left alone. The synagogue was later heavily damaged by Allied bombing in 1943 and then torched by Berliners in 1944. The building was finally demolished by the Communist East Germans in the 1950s. In the mid-1980s the East German government restored this great landmark, but the bulk of the synagogue was never rebuilt. In its place is an empty plot of land on which is marked the original layout of the building, providing a disturbing insight into the destruction of a way of life that used to be. It is a sad reminder of what we Jews lost during the war.
We did not have a chance to visit all 80 placards. The ones we did see were tough enough to view. The last one we looked at really hit home since it is located in front of a park surrounded by red benches. The picture was of a red bench. On the back of the placard it stated “Jews may only use those benches at the Bavarian Square that are marked in yellow. Eyewitness report 1939.” It must have been humiliating for the Jews who had lived their whole lives as Germans to be visibility separated and not allow to sit next to their German neighbors like they had in the past. Truly unbelievable.
Our last stop of the day was on Grunewald where the Berlin-Grunewald railway station is located. This is the place where the Gleis 17 (Track 17) platform was located. Starting in October 1941 until February 1945 this was one of the major sites of deportation for the Berlin Jews. Originally the trains left mainly for the ghettos of Litzmannstadt and Warsaw. But in 1942 they led directly to the Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camps. There are actually 3 different monuments here. The original monument was a cross section of railroad ties in front of the entrance to the train station, established by a local group of Lutheran women in 1987, with a plaque commemorating the beginning of the deportations. But since it was prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall it only says that people gathered here and were deported. It doesn’t say who these people were or where they were sent or what happened to them. In 2011 a Polish artist brought birch trees from around Auschwitz planting several here at Grunewald train station as part of this memorial.
The second memorial is a wall designed in 1991 by Polish artist Karol Bronaitowski. The hollow human figures represent the individuals who had to walk along the same path so that they could board a train for deportation during the Nazi regime. As you look at it the figures are of different shapes and sizes you notice that they are meant to represent the people who were deported as individuals in their own right; they were not the same; they had their own unique story which sadly had taken a tragic turn. The figures in the wall can be seen as disappearing. But despite their disappearance, they have still left their impressions on this place. Some interpret it as depicting the train and freight cars as they depart the station. No matter how you see it, the memorial is a very stark and moving tribute to these victims.
The third memorial established by the Deutsche Bahn (German) Railroad in January 1998. The memorial consists of two train platforms lined by plaques which represented each deportation train from Grunewald, listing the date, the number of Jews and the destination of the train, including Theresienstadt, Lodz, Riga and Auschwitz. We were given some time to walk along the tracks looking at the plaques. The first plaque was dated October 18, 1941 when the first transport carried 1,251 Jews to Lodz and the last one dated December 10, 1944 carried 31 Jews to Auschwitz. The total number of Jews deported from this platform adds up to 50,282. The largest transport was 1,758 Jews and the smallest was 13 Jews. The saddest part of this story is that all of the Jews deported had to buy their tickets to ride the trains to their ultimate demise. This is probably why Deutsche Bahn ultimately decided to create this memorial.
After having a chance to walk the platforms, we gathered at the steps in front of the memorial plaque. We then held a service of remembrance to honor those Jews who were deported out of Germany. It was a very moving service. After we said Kaddish, we all joined together to sing Hatikva. Our journey had started in Auschwitz which was at the end of these tracks. Today our journey ended at the beginning of the tracks. We had made the journey of our mishpocha in reverse. I believe that this was the best way to travel because it symbolized for me the return to life. The Jewish people survived and are now thriving again and in all of the places where the Nazis tried to eradicate them. This provides me hope that this type of tyranny and hatred can never happen again.After a short rest in the hotel, we all gathered for dinner. It was our last chance to spend time with our guide Hillel. We all took time to reflect and share just what we have learned or taken from the trip so far. There were so many great insights and feelings shared that there was not a dry eye in the place. It is amazing how in such a short period of time we have grown together as a family. Best of all is that we will all remember this trip forever and when we see each other in Temple it will be extra special because we have shared this experience.
It is hard to believe that the year has come to a close. Looking back at my reflections of the trip I took to Eastern Europe and my various running experiences is truly humbling. I take time to look back so that I can learn to appreciate the wide spectrum of experiences I had this year both positive and negative. Without looking back and reflecting on what has been, it is easy to repeat some of the mistakes I made this year and in the past. I feel strongly that reflection is an important part of being self-aware, which is at the heart of self-improvement. I hope that anyone who reads my posts will take some time to reflect on the last year so that they too can improve in the new year ahead.
Dec 18 – 6.50 miles (53:33, 8:14 pace) – Mile Repeats
Dec 20 – 6.20 miles (52:31, 8:28 pace) – Tempo Run
Dec 21 – 5.10 miles (47:53, 9:23 pace)
Dec 22 – 10.10 miles (1:40:33, 9:57 pace)
Dec 23 – 20.10 miles (3:29:02, 10:24 pace)
Dec 25 – 5.10 miles (45:17, 8:53 pace)
Dec 27 – 4.10 miles (34:47, 8:29 pace) – Tempo Run
Dec 29 – 12.10 miles (1:55:21, 9:32 pace)
Total Miles: 69.3 miles
2018 Total Miles: 1,890.1 miles
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