Day #1: Thursday, February 14, 2019 (Berlin)

I barely slept on the first flight. I had the worst pain in my ears during the second one. And I didn’t think I was going to survive all day without sleep. I’d never flown out of the country before this and it was a new and interesting experience to say the least.

I made it through the first day, though!

On our way to lunch, after we landed in Berlin, I was looking through the windows of the bus, amazed by the architecture of the buildings and houses, but also that it was so green and felt like we were in nature at the same time. Lunch at Restaurant Scheune was delicious, both because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast off the plane, and it was real German food, Käsespätzel being a very popular dish.

Next we visited the memorial at the Grünewald train station, dedicated to the remembrance of the trains of Jews that were transported to concentration/work/death camps during the war. The neighborhood in which the train station and memorial is located is upper class and very beautiful, so it was surprising to see that a lot of the houses had a perfect view of what would have been going on. I was shocked to learn that Jews would be crammed into cars on regular trains, with people living their everyday lives in the next car over. Overall, this memorial was profound and effective because of what you’re led to think about just by looking at dates and number on a train platform.
Our next stop, the Wannsee Villa, was one of the most beautiful buildings and landscapes I’ve ever seen. However, when you actually read about what happened there, and think about how the men here determined the fates of millions, it’s almost weird to walk through where they sat and ate breakfast, and discussed the deportation and gassing of Jews. There were so many artifacts like letters and writings of those men, that I couldn’t read it all. What I did manage to read, however, I tried to read in German first, then see how much I could understand before reading the English translation.

We then drove to another neighborhood, the Bayerische Quarter, and walked through the streets reading signs about Jews during the war and saw a few Stolpersteine in front out houses, commemorating the Jews who lived their and were taken from their homes and killed in camps.

When we finally got back to the hotel, after all of the things we did, I wanted to fall asleep right then and there. But we still had to go to dinner. It was a cute Italian restaurant, with amazing food and people. It was a great way to end the already packed and busy day of flying and touring. Being able to have a hot shower and fall asleep in a real bed though, 10/10.

--Maia

The Wannsee villa (Maia D)

The beach at Wannsee (Maia)

Stolpersteine commemorating Holocaust victims (Maia D)