Au Revoirs and Auf Wiedersehens...

...or however you spell that word.
Sachsenhausen was interesting and sad; basically very depressing. We saw the sickbay where they did medical experiments on prisoners and what the Soviets put up after the war. However, the saddest was the Jewish bunkers, because all the paint was peeling. In 1992 after the Israeli Prime Minister's visit, two neo-Nazis fire-bombed the barracks. They left some of the destruction to illustrate the fact that this outdated thinking is still very alive. It's sobering.

Street leading to Sachsenhausen; SS officials and their families used to live in these houses; now they are lived in by Germans


Clock at Sachsenhausen: stopped at the time it was liberated by the Soviets

Fire damage

Sickbay at Sachsenhausen

Sachsenhausen was an all-day trip. The next day, we went to two more museums: the Soviet-German war museum built by the Soviets, and the Jewish museum, along with the Soviet war memorial. The first museum was alright, but everything was in Russian and German so I couldn't read anything.

The Soviet war memorial was WAY bigger than I though at first and was absolutely beautiful; I will post pictures later.

The memorial

Statue at the Soviet memorial

The Jewish museum was my favorite of the trip; it chronicled Jewish history in Germany and didn't focus all its energies on the Holocaust like every other Jewish center we visited. It was fascinating and the architecture was beautiful.

Excellent quote from the Jewish museum

Today we went to a small Berlin Wall Museum and had a free afternoon to pack and nap. Jacob and I found a terrific Italian restaurant last night called Peretti, and so we convinced a bunch of people to go there. We and others, meanwhile, went to the best Indian restaurant I have ever been to (me and Jacob also discovered this, on our first night here) called Amrit.

Our last group activity was drinks and food at a Biergarten. It was fairly sad saying goodbye to Prof. Crew, but I will see the others tomorrow on the way to the airport (bright and early- 5am). I will also see Kristin and Andrew in Rome, which I am looking forward to. And we will be hanging out altogether often; we were and remain a closely knit class.

The group at the biergarten

But now it's time to say goodbye to WWII and make my way on to Renaissance art: Italy, here I come!