Tag Archives: Soviet

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, History, Photos, Themes

Theme: Ostalgie

“Ostalgie” is a term used to describe a nostalgic longing for the East German state and all of its trappings. Contrary to popular belief, while most East Germans were grateful to be intergrated into the West, it hasn’t been a smooth process and the struggle continues today. Former East Germans often feel that their culture and traditions were obliterated in favor of the capitalist West. Also, the East German states continue to be on average poorer and less prosperous than their Western counterparts. Symbols of the East are everywhere, from Trabant rental services to the growing presence of “Ampelmann”, the ubiquitous crosswalk guardian here in Berlin with his origins in the East.

Ampelmann, Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. AMPELMANN GmbH
Ampelmann, Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. AMPELMANN GmbH

As a child of the Cold War whose uncle was stationed in West Berlin for the better part of the late 70s-early 80s, I am intrigued by the fact that I am living in East Berlin. Our U-Bahn stop, Rosenthaler Platz, was a “ghost station”, where trains from the West would pass through but were unable to stop. The Wall is everywhere, and the meandering path was confusing for me until I remembered that West Berlin was a literal island. The prevalence of Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants in our neighborhood seems out of place, until I remember that these were allied nations with East German communist state. From the Soviet Brutalist architecture to the remnants of The Wall and the towering Fernsehturm, it has been exciting to finally be here and see the Forbidden City with my own eyes.