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May 9, 10:13
Courtesy of Irina Yakovleva.
Friedrichshain District Park. Two bunkers were located here during the war.
On May 8 in Berlin, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II fell on a day off. However, the memory of those events, the inhabitants of Germany save every day. Irina Yakovleva tells how historical memory became part of the daily life of Germans.
This year’s vacation is an exception; in other years, May 8-9 in Germany are normal business days. And this year the weekend was made only for Berlin, the rest of the land worked. The decision was made long before the pandemic and quarantine.
Several massive events were planned for this day in the German capital, as Berlin, 75 years later, remains a city of remembrance. It is in its streets, more than in any other city, where, literally, there is the memory of the Second World War, the Cold War and the fall of the Iron Curtain, which was visually personified by the Berlin Wall.
Berlin military routes
Almost all Berlin tourism agencies offer routes through iconic places related to World War II. This is the Reichstag building, and the monument to the victims of the Holocaust, and the Olympic stadium, built by the Nazis between 1934 and 1936. On one of the streets of Berlin, between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, there is a sign indicating the location of the bunker, where Hitler and his wife Eva spent the last hours of their lives.
It is impossible to see the underground remains of the bunker, but the sign in the parking lot and the symbols of this terrain occupy an important place in tourist guides for those interested in the subject of war. 35 km from Berlin is the territory of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp open to visitors, which was liberated by Soviet troops in 1945. During the years of the Nazi regime, more than 200,000 people were imprisoned in a concentration camp. Tens of thousands died in the field or during death marches.
During the strict quarantine, which lasted in Germany in early May, no excursion was discussed. But in Berlin, to touch history and military memory, excursions are not necessary. It is amazing how much this story is literally under your feet. It is so interwoven with architecture and urban planning that it is easy not to notice it, but if you know it and pay attention it will leave you breathless. And in the scale and historical significance of the events taking place here, and in how much air the Germans literally give this memory.
Lakeside massacre
“AND Do you swim in this lake? – Esther asks surprised, the heroine of the unorthodox miniseries, which grew up in the New York Jewish community. A new acquaintance, a Berliner, shows him that there, on the other side of the lake, there is a villa where the Nazis in 1942 had a conference and decided “Finally settle the Jewish question. “
“TO during the Cold War, “he continues,” East German guards shot everyone who tried to cross this lake in search of freedom. “As he speaks, the entire company is amusing themselves in the water and around, the usual image on the beach with vacationers.
On the shore of Lake Wannsee, the boy from the series talks about the Wannsee Conference, which took place on January 20, 1942. Under “the final solution to the Jewish question ”, and this is exactly how it was recorded in the protocol, which means the extermination of Jews in Europe. At the conference, the Nazis approved “Plan events. “It was estimated that they would lead to the deaths of eleven million people.
Open sources contain a lot of information about the Wannsee Conference. It is on the official website of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2020, the Ministry celebrates its 150th anniversary. January 8 German Minister of State for Foreign Affairs delivered a speech, opening the anniversary year. The official pointed out that an important date is not a reason for a big party, because “Too German diplomacy often lost its moral benchmark. “Advised not to seek Unwavering traditions “, and recognize the responsibility of history.
Later that month, on January 20, on the date of the infamous conference, an article was posted on the official website that recalled the role of the Foreign Ministry in “bureaucratic planning for the massacre.” In particular, on the eve of the meeting in Villa Wannsee, the Ministry prepared a document that advised “Set aside deportation of Jews from Northern Europe due to probable difficulties. “As for Southeast Europe, the ministry did not see “Special difficulties “.
Probably precisely because of the frankness of the authorities, the understanding of what happened, and their own responsibility for what they did, no one is ashamed to swim in Lake Wannsee. Remember, when you feel guilty, but have not yet apologized, you want to fail, hide, you feel small. And when you apologize and honestly admit that you were wrong, it becomes much easier. And then yes, you can swim in this lake.
Tempelhof concentration camp
This place is found in all Berlin travel guides, but not in all war travel guides. We are talking about the Tempelhof airport, where in 1909 Orville Wright presented his flying machine and made demonstration flights. In 1926 Lufthansa to Zurich completed its first flight from here.
From 1930 Tempelhof was the busiest airport in Europe. On May 10, 1933, at the airport, more than a million people gathered to listen to Hitler’s speech under huge Nazi flags. He called for an “awakening of the nation”, promising that the government would lift Germany out of the economic depression.
In the same year, in the first year of the Nazi government, the Gestapo began using the abandoned Casa de Colombia military prison. (Columbia-Haus) in the north of the Tempelhof field. Due to the massive arrests of political opponents, prison facilities quickly became inadequate.
The following year, a concentration camp was already operating here, the only SS concentration camp in Berlin, according to the Tempelhof official website. In its territory, journalists, politicians, Jews and others are detained. “Enemies”. Some 10,000 people passed through a concentration camp in Tempelhof.
In 2008, the airport was closed, all flights and aviation activities stopped. The Tempelhof buildings are fully preserved and are a huge territory. (350 Ha), including the track, became a park and a sports field. Here they run, ride bicycles, skydive, organize picnics and festivals. Tempelhof territory was not closed during quarantine due to COVID-19.
Ruined Parks
Berlin is flat. It is very convenient to run and move around the city by bicycle. The hills that are mainly in the parks are artificial. For example, in the Friedrichshain district park, the first public park in Berlin, opened in 1846, during World War II, there were two bunkers. After the war, they were destroyed and the remains of destroyed buildings were dumped in these places. Now these are two green, scaled hills that you have no idea there were ever bunkers underfoot.
One of the most famous hills in the ruins is Teufelsberg, which is also called “damn mountain ” (not due to war). Before the fascist regime began there were thickets of the Grunwald forest, there was no hill, and today it is the highest place in Berlin with a height of about 120 meters. When the Nazis came to power, the plans were to make Berlin the capital of the world. One of the projects to implement the concept of great “Germany “was the construction of a gigantic military-technical university. They failed to finish it.
After the victory, the Allies attempted to undermine this semi-construction, but the massive walls did not fully yield. Later, they decided to make this place where fragments of destroyed and bombed buildings will be brought from all over the city. The process lasted until 1972, until that time, 26 million cubic meters were brought here. rubble Artificial hill covered with sand and earth, planted trees, made a ski slope. Meanwhile, this process continued, in the 1950s, the Americans installed equipment to spy on and intercept eastern block talks in Teufelsberg. The station was used until 1989.
Perhaps the reason for this adoption is the investigations and open trials, some of which are ongoing today. The country redeems its guilt by admitting guilt, responsibility for atrocities and the establishment of justice. Daily work, when and after decades, the authorities create the conditions and invite the grandchildren of Holocaust victims to move to Germany.
