Today we took a field trip to the Jewish Museum which is only about 10 minutes from my house. The museum is split into two separate sections, the first being a modern art interpretation of the holocaust and its effect on European Jews and the second portion is a history of Judaism from the beginning of time. Now, I understand that the museum is called "the Jewish Museum" and not "the Holocaust Museum" but the Jewish history was pretty boring. The exhibits are all modern and therefore fun to play with but its almost as if the Germans (as they do in most situations) are uncomfortable just leaving something about the Nazi time as is. They almost always feel the need to add something informative about the Jewish people to take the focus off of Hitler. As if to say, "We aren't supporting Hitler and his ideas." Well duh your not! There is a general feeling here that if you have information about the Nazi time you must also include something not about the Nazi time in an effort to prove to the world that Germany no longer believes in the National Socialismus. Furthermore, every synagogue, Jewish museum, and even some Jewish stores are under 24 hour camera surveillance and have Polizei on guard 24 hours a day. I understand that what happened during the Holocaust was terrible. So terrible that you can't really explain it in words. But its also unfortunate that now, 60+ years later, a new generation of Germans is here and is paying the price for something they didn't do. This city and these people need to be able to move on which will be impossible to do while places like the Jewish Musuem are harder to get into than an airport.
(One building of the Museum. Please note the Polizei truck with three or four officers)And enough ranting for one day. maybe. I want to talk a little bit more about the first part of the museum more for my sake than yours. I don't want to forget some of the exhibit I saw and the way they made me feel.
The Holocaust Tower was the dark room lit only by natural light from a small slit in the oddly shaped room. There is no heating in the tower and nothing but cement. I was in the tower with about 8 other people but you never would have known. Because of the slit in the top of the tower you can hear all of the sounds from the street but they are muffled and confusing. You can hear cars, you can hear children screaming from the school across the street but you have no way of knowing exactly what the sounds mean or exactly where they're coming from.
The Garden of Exile is an outdoor exhibit with 49 tall cement blocks. The garden is on an incline and as you walk through the blocks you lose your bearing and even start to get dizzy. The exhibit it supposed to show how even though many people were able to escape Hitler's regime by leaving Europe their lives were not easy as they were forced to acclimate to a new society, a new language, and the whole time know that their friends and family were back in Germany.
My favorite exhibit (see the picture below) is the Schalechet (Falling Leaves). The exhibit is another oddly shaped room and the ground is covered by the screaming metal faces in the picture below. As you step on the faces they clang together and the sound echoes throughout the room. As more and more people begin walking the noise is almost unbearable but there's nothing you can do to stop the screaming.
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