Category Archives: Berlin

Berlin, History, Photos

Gallery: Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

I opted to do this alone. I don’t really have anything I could possibly say to make the gravity and horror of a concentration camp make sense to anyone who hasn’t been to one. It doesn’t even make sense once you’ve been to one. This place is an unholy despair factory designed by sadistic brilliance. And right now I am sitting at a mass grave, in pleasant neighborhood listening to the autobahn and the blackbirds whir and chirp in the background. They built the modern police training barracks next to the camp. As a warning. This is what happens when authority goes unchecked and brutality takes the place of protection. This is a terrible place filled with the memories of terrible acts that illustrate how far that can go in the blink of an eye.
This trip to the concentration camp has left me feeling pretty fragile inside. It was so much worse than I imagined it would be. It isn’t the same as reading about it. It’s so much more visceral standing where tens of thousands experienced cruelty and pain none of us will ever know. I genuinely loathe the idea of people suffering such unimaginable atrocities, to the point where I can’t shake it. I always assumed this was normal, but after watching people runaround the camp with their selfie sticks and then talk about where to go for lunch on the bus afterward, I don’t know anymore. I felt sick and horrible the whole time, like there was a stench in the air but you couldn’t smell it. I had to force myself to take pictures because I knew I would regret not documenting it. I sat for a really long time at the mass grave and didn’t even realize there were tears in my eyes. Is it stupid to get that emotionally worked up about anonymous people who died 70 years ago? I don’t think so. Someone has to mourn them, and anyone who remembers them is most likely dead by now.

Berlin, Personal Journal, Photos, Pop Culture

Gallery: May Day in Kreuzberg

Berlin, Personal Journal, Pop Culture

A Recipe

Berlin Beef Balls, Markthalle IX, Berlin. Photo by Scarlett Messenger
Berlin Beef Balls, Markthalle IX, Berlin. Photo by Scarlett Messenger

Berliner Burgers Recipe

ground beef
minced fresh garlic
paprika
salt
pepper
ketchup
German mustard
Butterkäse
brown bread

Step 1: Spend all day working on schoolwork and editing videos. Realize at 20:00 that you are starving and haven’t bathed or gotten dressed all day.

Step 2: Scrounge around your Playskool kitchen set for something to eat. Find ground beef. Sigh with resignation.

Step 3: Mix ground beef and the only spices you have in a bowl. Hope that you have translated the names of the spices correctly, because that whole “Kümmel” (caraway seed) and “cumin” mix up was pretty gross.

Step 4: Form meat into oblong patties to conform to the shape of the bread you have. It’s that seedy, dense, brown bread, but you are hoping it will work.

Step 5: Fry in the only frying pan you have on the tiny front burner because the large back burner makes it impossible to reach into the pan. Be sure to use a little butter — because Deutschland, that’s why. See your super hot German neighbor wave at you through your curtainless front window while you are standing, middle-aged and braless, with a greasy spatula in your hand.

Step 6: Serve on brown bread with Butterkäse (butter cheese), ketchup, and German mustard — not that nasty yellow American stuff. Watch your roommate spread his mustard with a spoon while making bird noises to himself and wonder if there is a god.

Step 7: Take a bite and realize you have invented the culinary equivalent to the brown dwarf star. However, it does taste good.

Step 8: See your hot neighbor wave at you again as he leaves to go do whatever super beautiful people do with their time. Realize that you are chewing on an oversize bite of grease-bomb and have ketchup on your shirt. Die a little inside.

Berlin, History, Photos

Gallery: Topography of Terror Museum

This museum is located at the site of the former offices of the Gestapo and the SS. The building is as sparse and minimalist as possible. Everything about it screams “THIS IS NOT A MONUMENT”. The grounds themselves are surrounded by a field of jagged stone, as if the earth here has been scorched and salted so nothing will ever grow again. I did not take any photos inside, although they were allowed. It didn’t feel like anything I wanted photographs of. Mostly black and white photos and text, the museum traces the history or the Gestapo and the SS, and by extension the Nazi regime. I found this museum interesting because the symbolism of the place seemed to summarize the attitude the German people have toward the Holocaust and the war. I did not realize how romanticized it was in the States until I came here. We have turned it into a nightmarish fairy tale and the Nazis have become faceless drones that can be killed in video games or film without any remorse. The German people live with the reality of their past every single day. It surrounds them, and is glaring in its confrontation. Rather than feeling guilty or complaining about how they shouldn’t be forced to deal with the deeds of their ancestors (as we so often hear in America), the Germans have taken these reminders as an inspiration to try and be better, to refuse to regress. I found it interesting that during my visit everyone back home kept asking me about the refugees with fear and horror and everyone in Germany asked me about Trump in the same way.

America about Germany: “Why didn’t the Germans stand up to Hitler? They are all guilty because they didn’t make a stand! If everyone had resisted, he wouldn’t have gained power”

America about America: “These people shouldn’t protest Trump, they are just giving him what he wants.”

Germany about America: “Seriously? SERIOUSLY?? *turns to Russia* Were they not watching before??”

Russia: *shrugs* “Don’t look at us. We’ve got Putin now.”