Paul Nesselroade

2026 Holocaust Studies Tour, Day 9: Free Berlin

Today was our last in Berlin, and it was free for the students to explore. We get up early tomorrow to catch a train to Poland, so this evening’s summary will be light on description and heavy on pictures.

I used the day to try and track down several places I’ve been meaning to get to, like the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, now absorbed into the Max Planck Institute of the Freie Universität of Berlin. They have, in the hallways of the research center, a series of nine exhibits. (Three more in the parking lot out back.) Together, they tell the story of Nazi eugenics and racial science. It is very well done, but I have to wonder how many people come to see them.

I also stopped by the (old) Anhalter Station (last time I swung by it had construction fencing all around it – not good for pictures), and then I trained it back to the center of town and saw the newly redesigned Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under National Socialism, the Tiergarten Soviet War Memorial, a plaque honoring Reagan’s “Tear Down this Wall” speech, and the Reichstag. Finally, I swung out by rail to find places like the Weiβensee (Jewish) Cemetery, Tempelhof Airport and the Airlift Memorial, and the Centrum Judaicum (or New Synagogue Museum) just north of downtown. Whew – about 18,000 steps, I guess. (Some pictures are below.)

Entrance to the original building
Athena head over the doorway – the Nazi’s loved the Greco-Romans
Portico for (old) Anhalter Station
I tried to put it in context, but I may have made the plaque hard to read
Tiergarten Soviet War Memorial – lots of protective fencing around it this year
A beautiful circular waterfall – triangle in the middle is the patch assigned to them in the camps, and stones around display have camp names on them
Hard to see, but around the blackened edge is repeated the phrase, “A poem without words”
Reichstag – from as far back as I could go due to a construction zone
Weiβensee Cemetery
Holocaust Memorial, front and center
Tempelhof, from the tarmac
The Eagles at Tempelhof were kept as historic relics of Nazi-era architecture – not as symbols of political ideology
The Airlift Memorial
The only picture I got of the Centrum Judaicum – no pictures allowed inside

The students did all manner of things – from climbing unknown numbers of steps to get to the tops of places like the Siegessäule and the Berliner Dom, to visiting art museums, shopping, and (apparently), sampling the best cookies and cappuccino’s ever! Pictures below.

Apparently Liz does a great impression of me leading the group
The Siegessäule
View from the top
The Berliner Dom – view from the top
Dome in the National Gallery
The River Spree, split around Museum Island
Fountain at Brandenburg Gate
Italian dinner to finish the day! (Hello, Christian!)

As I noted above, tomorrow we make our way via rail to Kraków. Eight hours by train. Hopefully we’ll have enough time to do a walking tour of Old Town.