The Ghosts of WWII
It is hard to ignore the history of World War II here, a history that is much more layered and multi-sided than we normally consider. My wife Jamie and I have been combing Berlin for Stolpersteine, literally “Stumbling Stone”. Stolpersteine are the work of artist Gunter Demnig who installs small brass stumbling stones throughout Germany telling the story of Jews who were taken by the Nazis and their final destiny (i.e. murdered in Auschwitz, survived, etc.). The project is brilliant as it causes one to pause daily life when a stumbling stone is encountered at the scene of the crime. You stop to consider the people who once lived here, and the fear they must have felt as they were taken from their homes. The scale of the story of the Holocaust down to a size that you can wrap your head around; one person, one family, one story.
I stood atop Hitler’s bunker today. It’s now a small parking lot flanked by high-rise apartment buildings. There is a sign that indicates the significance of the site, but nothing more. A site like this is strange, because it should not be memorialized, but at the same time it cannot be forgotten. It felt wrong to put a living space here. It should really be just nothing, uninhabitable, or perhaps a big hole.
This week Jamie and I are heading to Krakow, Poland. The city is apparently very unchanged from its old world past, and not quite as overrun with tourists and commercial chains as Prague. Friday we will visit Auschwitz and Berkenau to continue our World War II education.