Berlin + Holocaust Survivor Talk

[warspite1]

And so to the end of the attractions visited - sadly there was no time for: the football museum, the German museum, the walks around Potsdam or 3rd Reich Berlin, the monument to the Soviet Soldier or the day trip to Dresden plus a host of other things we probably don't even know about......[:(]

Reichstag at night and inside


When designing the new look Reichstag the resemblance to the old structure was clearly important. The new glass dome does this perfectly - linking the past to the modern



The original appearance - note the statue of Bismarck in the foreground, which can now be found by the Victory Column in the Tiergarten.



The reason that Dem Deutschen Volke is written at the front of the building

[warspite1]

Reichstag at night and inside (cont)

Upon entering the dome there is an excellent history of the Reichstag set out in the round



There is a ramp that goes around the outside of the dome that takes visitors to the top. An audio device gives commentary on the sites outside as and when one passes them



The dome looks down on the debating chamber

[warspite1]

Reichstag at night and inside (cont)


The top of the dome



The views are spectacular. This is a re-creation of Mount Fuji that Sony have used as a roof at their Sony Centre in Potsdamer Platz - and it changes colour too



The German flag on top of one of the four corner towers and looking resplendent against the menacing night sky

[zakblood]

First floor - Telephones, gents ready made suits, shirts, suits, ties, hats, underwear, and shoes. Going up...

grace brothers and typical UK humor from Are You Being Served[;)]

Code: Select all

http://cocolatta.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/are-you-being-served-lyrics.html

thanks for the trip, somewhere i'll never be going, GF doesn't like history hols so your lucky

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: zakblood

First floor - Telephones, gents ready made suits, shirts, suits, ties, hats, underwear, and shoes. Going up...

grace brothers and typical UK humor from Are You Being Served[;)]

Code: Select all

http://cocolatta.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/are-you-being-served-lyrics.html

thanks for the trip, somewhere i'll never be going, GF doesn't like history hols so your lucky

warspite1

I wondered if anyone would notice [&o]

[warspite1]

Thanks to those that have commented, or just visited the thread - I sincerely hope that this has been useful and perhaps whetted the appetite to visit this fine city (reluctant GF's permitting [;)]).

If anyone else has experiences of visits to historic places then please post them. I am keen to visit more and would appreciate the tips! [:)]

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: zakblood

First floor - Telephones, gents ready made suits, shirts, suits, ties, hats, underwear, and shoes. Going up...

grace brothers and typical UK humor from Are You Being Served[;)]

Code: Select all

http://cocolatta.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/are-you-being-served-lyrics.html

thanks for the trip, somewhere i'll never be going, GF doesn't like history hols so your lucky

warspite1

I wondered if anyone would notice [&o]

Ahhh, Mrs Slocombe and her.....cat.....

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: durangokid

Excellent photos and historical details, thank you.

I was first in Berlin in 1965 and found the beer first rate. Berliner Kindl was great but I preferred Shultheiss, even though it gave you this overpowering urge to invade Poland [;)]

warspite1

[:D]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: zakblood



grace brothers and typical UK humor from Are You Being Served[;)]

Code: Select all

http://cocolatta.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/are-you-being-served-lyrics.html

thanks for the trip, somewhere i'll never be going, GF doesn't like history hols so your lucky

warspite1

I wondered if anyone would notice [&o]

Ahhh, Mrs Slocombe and her.....cat.....

warspite1

I was at home last night stroking my ...... cat..... [:)]

[76mm]

hmmm, my apartment building was actually in one of your shots...who knows, maybe we walked right by each other...

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: 76mm

hmmm, my apartment building was actually in one of your shots...who knows, maybe we walked right by each other...

warspite1

No. Definitely not, I would have recognised someone wearing that number of medals....[;)]

What a coincidence [:)] I'm intrigued as to which one now.....

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Zorch

Albert Speer probably would have demolished it anyway, to build Hitler's fantasy Berlin.

warspite1

And on that subject, I found this interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOXmrVR00RI

[loki100]

really interesting thread ... thanks for putting it together

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: 76mm

hmmm, my apartment building was actually in one of your shots...who knows, maybe we walked right by each other...

warspite1

No. Definitely not, I would have recognised someone wearing that number of medals....[;)]

What a coincidence [:)] I'm intrigued as to which one now.....

warspite1

Thank-you for letting me know 76mm. As you say, maybe we passed each other? [:)]

[british exil]

Warspite you did visit quite a lot in those 4 days.

Time is a major problem when visiting Berlin, too much to see too little time.

This a quite a nice tour option. You really get to see an air raid shelter from WWII. Just across the road from the shelter is a Flak tower. If I remeber correctly near the Gesundbrunnen underground station.

http://www.berliner-unterwelten.de/en.html

Depending on the weather you can also take a guided bike tour, stopping at various points of interest, where the guide tells some interesting information.

http://www.fahrradtouren-berlin.com/en/ ... gLIL_D_BwE

I remember visiting Berlin before the wall came down 1982/83. The difference of west and east was unbelievable. The West was so exciting. The Kurfürsten Damm was well worth walking down to the center, Bahnhof Zoo, then the main train station in the west. It was the place to be.
Nowadays the center has moved to Potsdammer Platz and all that remains from Bahnhof Zoo are memories.

Mat

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: british exil

Warspite you did visit quite a lot in those 4 days.

Time is a major problem when visiting Berlin, too much to see too little time.

warspite1

I think that we could have saved a little time here and there but to be honest, the only way of really getting significantly more in would have been to spend less time at each attraction.

We had 4 full days to work with. The first day we took a sight-seeing bus to give us an idea of what was where and what we thought we may want to see more of. We took a boat ride for the same purpose but to be honest it was something we could have done without - and we probably could have got the German Historical Museum done instead.

The only other saving could have come from looking at sites in a better order and so cut down on travelling time perhaps.

But all in all I think we got a lot done, and it was a most enjoyable trip [:)].

[warspite1]

Following on from my Berlin visit – and purely coincidental in terms of timing – I was privileged to listen to a talk by a Holocaust survivor yesterday, and afterwards got to shake his hand.

I have to say the hour and a bit spent listening to him was a very moving and humbling experience. The survivor, now 86-years old was, despite his advancing years, very lucid and told his story in a factual, but engaging manner, with not a little self-deprecating humour too.

If anyone has not had the opportunity of listening to one of these talks ‘in the flesh’ then I would urge you try and do so while there is still time.

For those interested, I intend to summarise his story here in the coming days.

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Following on from my Berlin visit – and purely coincidental in terms of timing – I was privileged to listen to a talk by a Holocaust survivor yesterday, and afterwards got to shake his hand.

I have to say the hour and a bit spent listening to him was a very moving and humbling experience. The survivor, now 86-years old was, despite his advancing years, very lucid and told his story in a factual, but engaging manner, with not a little self-deprecating humour too.

If anyone has not had the opportunity of listening to one of these talks ‘in the flesh’ then I would urge you try and do so while there is still time.

For those interested, I intend to summarise his story here in the coming days.

I would be interested. As an aside, I knew one. She was a librarian in my junior high school.
I highly recommend http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/ I have the hard cover book.

[wings7]

ORIGINAL: warspite1
For those interested, I intend to summarise his story here in the coming days.

Indeed, I am! [:)]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Following on from my Berlin visit – and purely coincidental in terms of timing – I was privileged to listen to a talk by a Holocaust survivor yesterday, and afterwards got to shake his hand.

I have to say the hour and a bit spent listening to him was a very moving and humbling experience. The survivor, now 86-years old was, despite his advancing years, very lucid and told his story in a factual, but engaging manner, with not a little self-deprecating humour too.

If anyone has not had the opportunity of listening to one of these talks ‘in the flesh’ then I would urge you try and do so while there is still time.

For those interested, I intend to summarise his story here in the coming days.

warspite1

Part 1 - The pre-war years

Rudi was born in Germany in 1931 and lived near Templehof airport in Berlin. He had an older brother, Paul. His family were not practicing Jews – he said they never went to a synagogue – but were assimilated Jews. His parents, Hans from Nuremburg and Friedericke from Heidelberg, met while at university in Heidelberg. At the time of Rudi’s birth his father worked in a bank, he does not recall his mother working.

Rudi does not recall anything bad happening while in Germany, but he was very young and at that time had not started school so his contact with the outside world would have been limited. Following Hitler’s rise to power and the implementation of laws that gradually eroded normal life more and more for the Jews of Germany, his parents decided to leave the country in 1936. Rudi, Paul and their pregnant mother went to England where Rudi had an uncle living in London. His father went to Holland, where he got a job with an overseas branch of the bank a short while later. He does not know why his father did not come with them to England, or why having got a job in Amsterdam, the family did not move to Holland together.

The family stayed in London for 6 months, during which time Rudi’s mother gave birth to his sister Eve. This event – though of course they did not know it at the time - was the single most important factor in why Rudi is alive today. Being born in England, meant Eve had British nationality (this is a fascinating aspect of the story and something I knew nothing about – more to follow).

After 6 months in London, in September 1936, the family moved to Holland to join Rudi’s father. Apparently, with Holland having been neutral during WWI, it was felt that this country was safe for a Jewish family. The family settled in a town called Heemstede near Haarlem close to the Dutch coast. For the next three years Rudi remembers a happy, normal time for the family – although he thinks that their financial position must have altered as there were no more holidays like they had enjoyed when in Germany. He believes that his father was probably ordered to give up certain possessions when leaving Germany. Rudi's grandparents on both sides, were also able to leave Germany and joined the family in Holland.

And then everything changed on 10 May 1940.....