Close to Home

Berlin...the last and final city of our whirlwind tour of Germany and Europe. I felt that all our history lessons were building up to what we would encounter in Berlin. From the infamous wall to visiting a concentration camp, a lot of Germany's history took root in Berlin.

Bike tour = best way to view the city! Maybe it was the first time seeing the sun in full swing in a long time or the excitement over not having to walk around the city, but I loved the bike tour. My first impression of Berlin was that I felt closest to home. While history is deeply rooted, the modern feel creeped through and reminded me of big cities back home. Within three hours we traversed across the city getting glimpses of points of interest such as the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Parliament, and the memorial for Jews. Despite two downpours of rain, everyone seemed to enjoy the tour.

The one event on the program I had been dreading was visiting Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp outside of Berlin. This would be my first visit to a concentration camp, and I wasn't sure how I would handle it emotionally. To hear about all the horrible things that happened is one thing but to be standing on the very grounds is another.

Our tour guide met us at the hotel and travled with us to the camp site. For me, the walk from the train station to the camp was very mind opening. Just trying to imagine lifeless prisoners made to walk that distance was difficult for me. Once inside we traveled around the triangluar shaped enclosement to various parts of the camp such as prisoner barracks, "hospitals," and gas chambers along with the more modern monuments and museums set up. I would mostly blame it on the gorgeous weather, but the camp didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Seeing the sun after many weeks of rainy cold overshadowed the horrible camp. While our tour guide was excellent, he failed to recount many personal stories of people living there which I would have been more interested to hear.

Berlin offers many pieces of history that can be connected for the big picture of Germany's story. While we only experienced one week, I feel I have a greater understanding of Germany's struggles and triumphs.