Sachsenhausen...

Hello at last!

I am sorry for my long absence from blogging. I have been busy exploring Berlin. I realized about two weeks ago that time was moving much quicker than I wanted and that I didn’t have an infinite amount of time to see and do all that I wanted to in Berlin. Now I have just a week left and I fear there will still be so much I will not get to see.

April arrived a week ago and it has been so great having her here. We have been doing so much that it would be impossible to try and give you a complete update but, I will do my best to give you an overview. I will probably be adding multiple blogs in a row so make sure to look scroll down to see if I have added more than one at a time.

Last Saturday April and I went to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Oranienburg, which is on the outskirts of Berlin. It was a really tough experience. I felt sick to my stomach seeing what humankind is capable of. Although, it was such a sad experience, I also feel it was important. I think the opportunity to witness one of the darkest times in history in such a real experience made me feel a real connection to the Holocaust and the many lives we lost. People just like me with a life they were living, people they loved and who loved them, with so much achievement behind them and such promise ahead of them and it was all taken away. I think to that to remember them will be the only way to prevent that from happening again. In one of the cells there was a poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller who was Hitler’s personal prisoner and who lived in self confinement for over 6 years at Sacshenhausen. The poem is pretty famous now and I have heard it before but until I saw it in Pastor Martin Niemöllerthe cell at Sachsenhausen I had never connected it to my life before. It really made me think about how apathetic I often am to politics and other important issues. Here’s the poem for those of you who haven’t heard it before and again, for those of you who have:

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

We got back from Sachsenhausen in the evening on Saturday and were feeling pretty low so, we decided to go to the Sony Center and have dinner and see Mamma Mia. It was really cool to sit in the Sony Center and have the “sky” changing colours. The ceiling of the Sony Center is a large tent and the panels change colour once it is dark so we felt really hip and alive in such a lively environment. For once, we were able to order food and not make complete fools of ourselves or have our waiter hate us before even asking for our drink order. I think I might be beginning to get a hold on the language and customs here (well, at least a bit anyways). Just try not to smile too much or do anything that anyone else isn’t doing and you’ll be okay. I think I might have been too happy and chipper for them before and they could spot I was a tourist a mile away with my large toothy grin. Mamma Mia was great, I highly recommend it! We laughed hysterically which was a nice contrast to the grimness of earlier in the day. I honestly thought my face would break because I laughed so hard…or that I would really annoy the people sitting next to me but, they were laughing even more than I was so, again, I didn’t make any enemies.

Well, I hope this blog finds you all enjoying your summer. April and I are off to Italy next week and we are sooooooo excited, although I will miss the girls.

Miss you all,
Jenn(ifer)