A Classroom (and a Moving Ceremony) in Brandenburg
Today we were joined and led by my friend, Christian Marx, historian and educator who works for the Brandenburg location of the Memorial to the Victims of Euthanasia Murder. He kindly met us in Berlin at the “Trains to Death, Trains to Life” Memorial at Friedrichstrasse Station and then escorted us to and through the beautiful city of Brandenburg (stopping to see a segment of the old city wall as well as a beautiful St. Catherine’s church, the original structure dating back to the 1200’s) and then on to the memorial. Here we learned about what happened at this place, the first place to experiment with using gas as a means of murder, and its connection to what would later happen in the extermination camps in Poland.
Being a memorial day (80 years ago on May 8th the Nazi government agreed to an unconditional surrender), there were more people at the museum that I had ever seen. One surprise for everyone (museum personnel included) was the arrival of a catholic motorcycle group from Potsdam (yes, you read that properly). After a guided tour, they group, led by a priest, held a short ceremony right in front of where the first victims of the Aktion T4 program were killed and cremated. It was so moving – no one wanted to take a picture. However, you can see a pic of the flowers the group left behind before they all rumbled away.
Our afternoon time was spent reading newly received testimony (we were the first group to have access to this primary data!) from one of the perpetrator doctors who worked at this killing facility. We spent our time becoming familiar with Dr. Ullrich’s description of what took place at this facility and his arguments in defense of his actions – and then analyzed them with passages selected from Hannah Arendt’s argument for the “banality of evil” found in her classic work, “Eichmann in Jerusalem.” The discussion was weighty, insightful, and participated in broadly across the group. I am extremely grateful for Christian’s design and leadership of this engaging experience.
Finally, in the evening it was great to connect with my departmental colleague, Dr. Marcus Kilian. He recently arrived in Berlin and will be joining us for the next two days as we go to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and then Lutherstadt (Wittenberg).
See pictures from the day below.
