So we've been in Berlin for a few days now but the first and second full day had my heart sinking to the floor. On our first day, we took a walking tour around the city of Berlin. The first half wasn't too bad at all; we got to see all the various museums that the city had and their history. Then as we went on, the guide began to go into figures of history like Stalin and Hitler and the Nazi party. It was really cool to get to hear about this topic and see the monuments as we went. Our the end of our tour (3 hours later) was at the topography of Terror museum. It's here that we got to see part of the Berlin wall that was still standing. One thing I found interesting was that any type of museum or monument that has anything to to with the holocaust is free of charge, by law. Being in that museum, I could see that some people were at the point of tears because of all the pictures and information that were put on display; others had a look of silent shock. For me, as I saw some of the pictures and read about them, I felt a sadness and heaviness take over. I couldn't process that something like this had taken place.
This feeling was amplified when, on day 2, we went on a walking tour of the Saschausen Concentration Camp.We saw a lay out of what the whole place looked like and then saw some of the original buildings that were in it that had become museums. there was one building that had letters and paperwork from all the victims of the holocaust and honestly, it made my heart hurt. On the bottom floor, There was a large floor display of all the shoes and clothes of people that had been found and excavated. As I stood there looking at this, I just felt increasingly heartbroken and was at the edge of crying when the guide told us we were moving on. For the rest of that tour and the day, I just felt so emotionally exhausted. It was honestly a really sobering experience to see and learn about such a significant part of our history....
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