Sunday – Day 31 – Part A
Posted on 21st August 2012
Today’s post is separated into two parts. Not for reasons of length, but to separate the content.
Today I confronted the darker side of Germany’s history, visiting again the Holocaust Memorial but, this time also going into the Holocaust Museum Memorial underneath.
For the entire duration of my trip to Germany there was this shade hanging quietly behind in the back of my mind. No amount of rationalizing that Germany today is different from that of the third Reich is sufficient to create an equivalent barrier in my perception of the country.
Koen mentioned to me that as he was feeling the tendrils of the evil left behind that I must be even more so affected. And, indeed I was.
I won’t go into depth on the details of the memorial, but as I stood silently in front of the following sign, I felt paralyzed by the realization that the horrors were no longer in some far off European city but, carved in barely faded blood onto the stones on which I was walking.
Yehi zichrum baruch.