A Year of Service

This Summer I took a trip to Berlin. It is a city that has always been on my to do list. I went for two reasons. Here in Berlin was what I feel quite strongly the making of modern Europe, also to see a new city and country that I had heard so much about in history books. I was struck especially by the Brandenburg gate. I felt moved standing looking at the gate realising all the history that had gone on at this place. I also realised that I was seeing it from the East. My mother had gone to Berlin in the 1960s and was not allowed to see this view that I was able to see because of the Wall. But, I did not just want to see the attractions and lets face it the thing that divided a city for so many years you can now buy and put over the fire place a piece of European history.

One of things that puzzled me about Berlin was one recurring question. Had the wall actually come down? So I asked. Yes the wall had come down we can see the evidence all around Berlin but there was a feeling that the Wall was some way still up in the hearts of people. The City sometimes still felt divided between the East and the West.
Some one told me that things were cheaper in the East and some in the old West resented the fact that

their taxes went on paying for the infrastructure of the old East. For some they even saw that life was better with the Wall up. I was surprised to hear this. But, after thinking about it when Russia Communist regime died there was much poverty and people there also said almost exactly the same thing. One person told me that after 25 years of reunification that they had come a long way but there was also a long way to go. The joy in 1989 when the wall came down shows itself in Economic realisation of what it actually all meant.

There was another question I had to answer for myself. How have Germany and its capital dealt with the Second World War and especially the Holocaust.  Over the last few years I have been to Poland, Amsterdam and Israel. Seeing the memorial in Israel was very moving and speechless and the inhuman way we treat our fellow human beings. Seeing the Concentration camps in Poland was difficult. And seeing the image of Anne Franks Father leaning in the roof support in Amsterdam was heart breaking.

In Berlin there is one block in memorial to the Holocaust of the Jews. It is the most
claustrophobic place and you get the sense of the world coming in on you. You can almost imagine the feelings of the Jews living at that time that the world was caving in on them. It is worth seeing and the Pictures I put up here do not give it justice. It is a very strong and powerful image and I feel that they have got it right. As you rise and full
you get the sense of the oppression and the sense of

hopelessness it is relentless and oppressive. It is stark and unforgiving. It is a powerful reminder of what we can do do each other.

So what have I learnt from my trip to Berlin? I learnt that Berlin is a city in transformation even after 25 years since the wall came down. It is a place that has been through quite a lot of changes and that some of the people are struggling with the changes. It is a place that I think I would love to visit again and immerse myself in Berlin again. It is a place that is the making of modern Europe and we need to live in peace and tolerance.  IT is summed up in one picture drawn by a child at the Berlin Wall Museum

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