Our last day in Krakow was so nice as we went to Jewish Community Center and final concert of Jewish Cultural Festival. Also we all used free afternoon time to see last of sites had not seen and to shop for mementos.
Then on Sunday morning we fkew to Berlin. Short flight. We are staying at the CIEE Berlin Center which is really a dorm...lol my second stay in college dorms this year (Washington DC with student trip was other). We went on walking tour of part of city and then a great dinner cruise on the Spree River which runs around city. We also talked with historians from Center For Contemporary History about commemoration and memory in Berlin which I loved as have been studying for 12 years now.
Today we visited the excellent Topography of Terror aure which commemorates and explains the former site if the Gestapo and SS in Berlin and all of its origins and actions. The site is so informative and tasteful and a place that was not here on my previous visit. We then went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews which I had seen previously and I had followed the entire history of the project so it was not new material but a fascinating place to see again. Tben when done a fee of us went to the new memorials nearby forvthe Roma/Sinti and,for Homosexuals who were killed by the Nazis. I then finally found the small marker in front of what was formerly the Reich Chancellery and Garden and thus also the site if Hitler's,underground bunker. As some of you know for me and my dissertation this was important for me. The marker is hard to find as the Germans are not eager to remind folks...in fact the Soviets destroyed it and most traces of it so as not to draw gawkers. For years the site was kept secret. I had not been able to find it on previous trip as even less marked. While this is ghoulish in a way, as a modern German historian who focused on this period it was important for me to stand in front of the location.
It is funny but other group members have commented that I seem to know the city well...i did engrain much of the city in my mind on previous trip but I also am so familiar with the city lay out from the war years. ..i tend to see it in my mind from the 1940s I realized.
I led my compatriots finally to my fav place in Berlin...Fassbinder & Rausch Chocolatiers! Downstairs is,a chocolate store like no other and upstairs a chocolate cafe. Like I was the first time you are just in awe at all the fine chocolate and choc sculptures....lol and of course we had to partake! Ahh Berlin is such a fun city!
