Excursions

Three things from our excursion really stood out and made an impression on me more than anything else. These were the concentration camp at Buchwald, the German resistance museum and the museum of the European Jews. The concentration camp, though more historic ground than actual sights to see was such a moving experience. After spending this past year researching genocides and man's inhumanity to man, it was perfect timing for a visit to a sight like this. The sight also served to provide inspiration for a trip after the class to visit another concentration camp at Dachau, and I know my investigation into mans inhumanity will not stop there. The German resistance museum also drew on knowledge I uncovered with my thesis research and a previous honors class, and in fact opened with my favorite poem. Martin Niemollers poem is a fantastic illustration of the need for strength against the forces of evil in the world and the ret of the information we discussed in the resistance museum further sparked my interest and I plan to look deeper into the subject.  The last museum we saw in Berlin was equally moving. The architecture itself told a story, the tunnels and design helped to show the pain felt by victims of the holocaust in a very real way. I had honestly never realized architecture and design of a building could be so emotional. The part that stuck out most to me was the room covered in iron faces. The point  is to not turn your head away from the horror but to walk on the faces. But to me, it was a graphic image reminiscent of the horrible pictures I came across of post holocaust liberation, bodies in Rwanda etc and I could not bring myself to walk across the faces. Rather than being compelled to turn around and ignore it or made uncomfortable by the noise, I wanted to pick up the faces and help them. When she told us the art is to show those who are too likely to ignore atrocities I like to think my urge to help the faces and himanize them rather than step on them shows just as much of a desire to help. But the art has definitely served its purpose of making me think. Overall, I feel these three museums have complimented my studies, made me think and inspired me to take a closer look into these topics at home.