Today we spent in Brandenburg, touring through this mid-sized city and learning about the euthanasia program the National Socialists started there just a couple months after the war started. Christian Marx was our guide the entire day. We visited and learned about one of the city’s very old churches (St. Catherine’s – going to back to the 14th century), some important local resistance, and the moral capitulation of many doctors, nurses, and administrators. (Nearly10,000 men, women, and children were killed by CO2 gas in about 9 months of time. This was the first place to design and employ gas as

Today we started off by looking for evidence of a culture of memory in the Hackescher Market section of Berlin. Here we found several Stolpersteine (stumbling stones), spotted some centers for potential exploration in the days to come (namely, an Anne Frank Center and the Otto Weidt Center), and briefly visited a Jewish Cemetery Memorial that was desecrated by the Nazi’s but restored for the purpose of visitation in 2008, albeit without the missing headstones. (The 18th century philosopher Moses Mendelssohn is buried there.) We then met my friend and historian Christian Marx at the Trains to Life, Trains to

Today we focused on the culture of memory that can be found within walking distance of our hotel – i.e., the heart of Berlin. We explored Alexanderplatz, the Rosenstraβe Protest, Museum Island and the Berliner Dom, Bebelplatz, the Topography of Terror Museum, the Aktion T-4 Memorial, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and several other culturally relevant sites. It was a long day with a lot of walking, but we experienced so much. And, there was just enough time for some individual exploring at the end…pics below will capture some of that. Tomorrow we will again focus on

Well, the gang is all here! All-in-all, gathering them up from the airport and train stations was rather uneventful. Just one flight hiccup and one ICE train delay. Very thankful for that. It nice to finally be all together in Berlin after having met several times as a group in our pre-tour spring meetings. Let me say emphatically, the questions are already flowing. “Did I see a Nazi pin on the shirt of that guy who was panhandling?” “How do the Germans feel about people coming to their country to learn about the Holocaust?” “Is it just me or are

Well, I made it to Berlin around mid-day and had a pretty productive afternoon and evening. Namely, I re-familiarized myself with the surroundings – there are always new things going on, and then I went exploring. This year there are several new large (10 story +) buildings going up around Alexanderplatz – and the station itself is under construction. You can still reach the platform to use the station and you can still buy rail tickets, but all of the commercial businesses under the station are closed and empty. Quick and diverse foods will not be quite as quick and