This blog post is brought to you by Pat, who listened to the rant and asked me to write it down. If you don’t like it, go harass him on Twitter.

So, I was in Berlin.  One of the things you do in Berlin is learn about World War 2, the Nazis, Hitler, the Holocaust and all the associated atrocities. Growing up when and where I did, I actually have a pretty good handle on this, I think. True, none of my family were killed (to my knowledge), but I have visited Holocaust museums and memorials all over the United States. Now I’ve also seen several in Germany as well.

What follows is a criticism of these things that applies to all but one of them. To be clear, I am not criticizing nor questioning the need for such things, simply the manner in which they have been executed.

Berlin's Holocaust Memorial

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin was designed by an American architect. It’s stark and stolid and, according to our tour guide, intentionally vague. She said that the artist’s idea was that by making it vague, the viewer would be forced to consider it and, in so doing, consider the Holocaust.

The truth is, I found it pretty moving. It’s sort of bizarre to be asked to consider something like the Holocaust with kids treating the thing like it’s an amusement park maze, but whatever. At the time I thought it interesting, and so laden with symbolism and meaning that anyone who stopped to think about it would certainly ballpark the intent, or lack thereof.

Still, as I considered it more, I found it was wildly dissatisfying to me, so I’m just going to come out and say it: Considering is not enough.

Of course these people and their struggles and suffering should be remembered, but what good are those memories if they are not doing anything about those who today experience the same struggles and suffering?

Here’s what I think the perfect Holocaust memorial would be: I want a HUGE screen. Huge. Permanent. In front of a huge public square where people gather for national events, picnic, walk through on their way to work, whatever. On the screen, 24/7 in a wide variety of languages is a never ending and current broadcast, piecing together all the news of the day from around the world where genocides and genocide-like events are occurring.

I want people not just to remember. I want people to know that we’re not beyond it. We’re not through it, we’re not over it, and we are certainly not above it.

Holocausts are still happening, but for some reason our awareness of them is stuck in the past. Wouldn’t it be the most beautiful monument to those who perished to prevent more senseless suffering in their memory?

Okay, three weekends ago now. Also, a warning for those afraid of wikipedia holes: This post is a wikipedia vortex. Enjoy.

It was more than a weekend, actually, we were there for four days. And boy, did we do tourism. I mean it. We spent every morning (including the day we arrived) taking advantage of the hostel’s free and strong wifi signal and actually worked. Once that was done, though, we were motivated tourists full of hustle and curiosity.

Things we saw: Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, bits of the Wall, the Sony Center, the Reichtag, the East Side Gallery, TV Tower, Berliner Dom, the Book Burning Memorial, the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Jewish Museum, the Bauhaus museum, the Memorial for Victims of War and Tyranny, the New Synagogue, Hitler’s bunker, the old SS Headquarters, and of course tons of squares, churches, and other beautifully rebuilt buildings.

A quick plug: We did two walking tours with NewEurope, one free and one paid. I also did one of their walking tours in Ireland in February. Seriously, seriously, if you are ever in a city where they are operating, DO IT. The tour guides are consistently entertaining, knowledgeable, and the tours are really complete and fascinating. I’m going to try to squeeze in one or two in Edinburgh before my time there is up, and hopefully several more on the continent. /commercial break.

So, what did I think of Berlin? Well, the honest truth is that the first few hours we spent walking around the city, I really didn’t love it. It was my first trip to Eastern Europe and I guess I hadn’t really thought too much about what to expect. The architecture was so remarkably stark, the buildings might as well have had huge neon hammer and sickle logos on them. There was unkempt parkland, dirty streets, and a feeling of unclaimed urban-ness.

But that was just the first few hours. Pretty soon, we started to see some really cool things. Then the things got cooler and older. Then we started to learn some things, and then we drank some beer. Needless to say, by the end of the weekend my opinion of Berlin had completely turned around. For the record, Paul liked it from the start. He has a thing about post-communist places.

Other things that we loved were the hostel that was actually a boat in the river, the church that didn’t get rebuilt, and the neighborhood crepe restaurant near where Pat was staying. More soon!