BERLIN GERMANY
BERLIN BABY!
This without a wall city is one of the most fascinating & diverse city I have ever visited in Europe.
Travel it's not just to exploring a rare places with a magnificent sights.
Travel to places I've never been and learn about their historical and socio-cultural context of the nation and it's people is like putting a puzzle ... it helps me to see a better and bigger picture ... to make sense and understand the immense complexity of what's really going on with the world we live in. It's still ongoing process though but it's full filled my desire to know and experience countless situations that stimulated my imagination and my mind.
We all came from history. It is not just about wars and conflicts, history also basis of identity of a nation, a religion, a race, a society, a family and an individual. It can lead to greater understanding of other cultures and why they are the way they are.
I'm not consider myself as a palaeophile (wait! palaeophile tu org yg super minat sejarah la ... bukannya pedophile 🙅🏽) but I'm always drawn to it. I'm the guy who went to a museum and read every single writing on a exhibitions until my legs gave up or they forced me out because they want to closing it 😆
Berlin itself is like an open air museum .. so much historical events had happens in this city. One after another we witnessed the most significant major events in our modern history that changed the world to as we see today. WWI, WWII, The Holocaust, The Cold War, our parents may remember the construction of The Berlin Wall and our generation witnessed the fall of it in November 1989. It's history is still only a yesterday's news.
Walking around the city I can't help feeling so surreal when standing at the places where Nazi & SS headquarters used to be, on a surface of Hitler bunker where he committed suicide, pacing through the blocks of The Holocaust memorials, Roma & Sinti memorial place, A place where Hilter gave his public speech, standing at Bebelplatz Square looking down at a rows of empty bookshelves considered as voided memorial : The books burning by Nazi in 1933 (This make me want to reread The Book Thief though), The Bernauer Straße ; one of the first place the border between East & West Berlin enforced and of course when I put my hand on The Berlin Wall. A places like this and the stories behind it not only constantly shifts my perspectives but also became a valuable life lesson.
I have a chance to join a tour to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp outside of Berlin used by Nazi regime during WWII : It was conceived as an important model extermination camp. Between 1936 to 1945 over 200,000 prisoners locked away in this camp. Even though Sachsenhausen not a big scale extermination camp like Auschwitz in Poland but still 30,000 prisoners died to tortured, starvation, severe malnutrition, disease and as a victims of extermination experiment by SS.
Worth a visit. Because what it is, at least. Close to Brandenburg Gate. We come to Berlin for business trips at the end of January/early February every year. I have visited this memorial a few times. I found this draft I haven’t finished yet and I think I should post it.
A nice memorial to a terrible time in history. It is right next to the Brandenburg Gate, so can see both of them at the same time.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial, is a large memorial located in the center of Berlin, Germany. It was designed by the architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold, and was dedicated in 2005. The memorial consists of a 19,000 square meter site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The slabs vary in height and width, creating an undulating landscape.The memorial is intended to commemorate the six million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, and serves as a reminder of the atrocities committed during that time. The memorial has been widely praised for its powerful and evocative design, which creates a sense of unease and disorientation. The Memorial also has an underground Information Center that visitors can tour to learn more about the history of the Holocaust and its victims.The Memorial has been the subject of much debate and controversy, with some criticizing it for not being specific enough about the victims and others for not being respectful enough. Despite this, it's considered as one of the most visited and meaningful tourist attraction in Berlin, serving as a reminder of the past atrocities and warning for the future.As a side note, it is important to show respect when visiting memorials or other sites related to tragic events. Visitors are expected to maintain a somber and reflective tone, and to be mindful of the solemn nature of the site.#berlin #beautifull #jewasofeurope #memorial #Germany
It is a place to show the respect to those Jews who sacrificed in Germany. It is important to learn from the history.
Eisenman's design fundamentally broke the concept of monuments and abandoned the use of any symbolic symbol. The network of 2711 cement tablets has many entrances and exits and can be used by visitors at will. The number 2711 is based on the size of the memorial site. It has no symbolic significance and has no relationship with the number of victims. The material of the monument is very hard grey self-sealing concrete. The production of the monument is near Berlin. In order to ensure the quality of the surface layer of the stele body will not deteriorate for a long time, a multi-layer processing scheme is adopted in the production process, which can also facilitate the removal of graffiti marks. An underground information hall can be reached by steps or elevators on the southeast side of the monument group. The design style of the exhibition hall is consistent with the block shape style of the monument group. The information about the victims, the victims and today's memorial sites is introduced. The museum is free and has a Chinese introduction. According to the Eisenman Plan, concrete slabs are designed to create a disturbing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture is intended to represent an original order that is far away from human beings due to human factors. Initially, the 2005 brochure for the official British visitors to the monument said that the design represented a drastic approach to the traditional concept of the monument, because Eisenman did not use any symbolism. In the attached underground "Local Information" (German - "Ort der Information) list the names of all known Jewish victims from the Yad Vashem Sanctuary in Israel.
The Jewish Holocaust Monument Group, adjacent to the German Bundestag and the Brandenburg Gate, consists of 2711 gray pillars of varying lengths. Meditate on its wonderful design with profound implications. In the meantime, it is like a labyrinth, looking far away like waves. Every stone tablet has no sign, it is silent crying of countless souls; the material is solid, thick and heavy like a coffin. Stepping into it, the endless and monotonous shape makes people sink into meditation.