Yonathan in Berlin - July 2025

Later, now that I've returnd home, I will write some sort of reflection, with some insights that I have gathered over the last two weeks. Until now, the blog helped me keep track of what I have done and seen so far, and whom I've met to work on the book project.

A fitting finishing touch to two and a half wonderful weeks: a(nother) guided tour of the Bundestag/Reichstag. Always interesting. After I get home tomorrow, and once I get settled again, I'll write a reflection. Or several reflections. I'll need some time to digest everything, after two weeks of work in the Netherlands, and two and a half weeks in Berlin.

Three more memorials. First the Spiegelwand at the Hermann Ehlersplatz, near a former synagogue, with many, many names of victims who used to live nearby. Sorry, it was very difficult to take good pictures, because of the mirrors (Spiegel) and because of the market at the square. Plus another monument with mirrors, at the Hausvogteiplatz , in honor of the Jewish fashion store owners who had businesses at this square. On the stairs from U-Bahn 2 to the monument, there are 19 names and addresses of Jewish-owned fashion stores that were there until the 1930s. Finally, next to the Reichstag building, a monument for the 96 (!) Reichstag deputies who were murdered by the Nazis. Many of them in Brandenburg, Plötzensee or Sachsenhausen, places that I visited earlier during my visit to Berlin. Tonight, I have a reservation for a guided tour of the Bundestag. With that, I'm finishing 17 amazing, very well spent days in one of my favorite  cities. Tomorrow morning, I...

On my way from Schoeneberg, I stopped at Wittenbergplatz (which always reminds me of Itzik Wittenberg , the FPO leader in the Vilna ghetto, though the place is called after a general/battle in the Napoleonic wars) to eat something. From there, I walked to my hotel, along with the Christopher Street Day parade, also known as the Berlin Pride Celebration, as it passed right by my hotel (which, as I wrote yesterday, happens to be near the Nollendorfplatz). The parade is a very colorful, friendly and quite loud event, with between 500,000 and a million people attending every year. The atmosphere seemed to be very happy and inclusive. This was 'my' first pride event ever. Mainly because I (almost physically) hate crowds and noise. But I really enjoyed watching all these shiny happy people. It was good to see so many happy people feeling safe, celebrating and supporting gay pride in the German capital today. If I learnt anything from the many museums and memorials that I have visited...

 At the Schoeneberg City Hall, where John F. Kennedy held his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, a reading room houses the 'Wir Sind Nachbarn' exhibition. This exhibition, which started as a local initiative, tells the stories of Jewish families and individuals who lived in the Schoeneberg and Tempelhof neighborhoods and who were deported to their death or managed to survive by hiding or fleeing abroad. All the stories that appear in the exhibition (I didn't count but there are many) come with copies of original documents, pictures, letters etc. On the walls are thousands and thousands of cards, mentioning the addresses (alphabetically) the addresses of families who were expelled of their homes, often with the place to were they were deported or managed to flee. Those cards are the work of one man, one of the volunteers who works at the exhibition told me. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the stories (including some videos with testimonies) are in German, on...

On my way back to Berlin, after visiting Brandenburg an der Havel. The Brandenburg Prison is interesting, the information is very well presented, in German and English. I'm glad I went, but I would not take students there, it's not worth the 90 minutes' ride (and 15 Euro on top of the Berlin ABC public transport card). The Memorial for the Victims of the Nazi Euthanasia Program, on the other hand, would be a great addition to any visit to WWII sites in Berlin with students or teachers. It tells, also in German and English, a very dark and sad chapter in the history of the Third Reich in a clear, comprehensive and convincing manner. Including the continuity between the T4 program and Operation Reinhardt.

Tomorrow is Christopher Street Day, the yearly big gay pride parade in Berlin. I googled the term and found that the Nollendorfplatz (the U-Bahn station near my hotel) has played an important role in the LHTBQ+ scene in Berlin since the early 20th century, and that it became the focus of Nazi anti-gay terror in the 1930s. Since 1982, the wall of the station has a memorial plaque in the form of a pink triangle that says "Beaten to death - Ignored/Silenced to Death: for the homosexual victims of National Socialism". I learnt this only this afternoon, which is slightly ironic, since I have been 'touring' monuments and museums for two weeks. I think I have done quite a thorough job, but I am sure, after I finish my article, that memorials will (have to) be added. That is the advantage of publishing something online (besides the accessibility): it is easy to make additions and changes when and where necessary. The plaque below the triangle says: "The 'pink triangl...

 On my way back from the Treptower Park, I had my first Döner since I arrived here two weeks ago. I love that German-Turkish street dish, it's much lighter than shawarma. And it used to be much cheaper too ;-) I finished the week, before I went back to my hotel for an early night (I am exhausted and have a bad cold, so I decided to skip kabbalat shabbat this time), with ice cream. I googled 'Best ice cream Berlin', and this one, near the U-Bahnhof Schlesisches Tor, came up first. They may pay Google for that, I don't know, but the ice cream that I had (almond-pistachio and - my default taste - strawberry) was delicious. When I have a cold, usually it does not affect my sense of taste. The only time I could not taste anything was for a few days when I had Covid.

This park I visited at least twice before, with Centropa, and every time I am in awe somehow. It is huge, very Soviet and very East-German, and all the quotes that I saw, often very long, are by the infamous Josef S., but still, the park always makes me feel small and insignificant. Which may have been its very purpose, of course. I have some great pictures from previous visits, but I had some time today, so I took another walk there. And I am happy that I did.