'Yes, I don't like to live here,' she said, more to herself than me. Then she turned toward me: 'But if I have learned anything from life, it's that since I don't belong anywhere, only the movement matters. Traveling, being able to travel, this is why I escaped, and what I enjoy more than anything in the world is the fact that nobody is stopping me.'

- Former East Berliner in How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic

The Bourne Trilogy Has Schooled Me in the Important Euroepan Sites

Potsdamer Platz: I wouldn't know I'm supposed to care about this place in Berlin unless it was for the Bourne movies.

I'm so thankful.

Can you tell?

Metro at Potsdamer - an interesting sign unlike any I've seen elsewhere in Europe

More of Potsdamer Platz -the new downtown of Berlin

Remnants of World War II

Berlin Wall

Berlin: Topography of Terror

Because some things should not be forgotten ...

Shattered windows and displays at Jewish shops in Berlin in the morning after the pogrom (Reichskristallnacht), November 10, 1938.

Arrest and public humilation of Jews in Baden-Baden, November 10, 1938. On November 10, the SS and police arrested around 80 Jewish men of Baden-Baden and took them to the local district police station. The "protective detainees" then had to walk under SS and police escort to the local synagogue, where they were forced to read Hitler's Mein Kempf out loud. The synagogue was set on fire and the detainees deported to Dachau concentration camp. The photo shows the victims arriving at the synagogue through a gauntlet of spectators.

Jews arrested during a raid at an "assembly camp" set up in the suburb of Drancy, Paris, August 1941. In the foreground is a French police guard. After the 11th arondissement in Paris was "combed," 4,000 Jews were interned in Drancy until deportation. A majority of the Jews arrested in France, at least 75,670 people, were deported from this camp, which was run by the French police, to the extermination camps "in the East." Only 2,570 survived. This photo was taken by a war reporter belonging to Wehrmacht propaganda company.

After the arrival of a deportation transport carrying Hungarian Jews, the victims are prepared for "selection" at the ramp of the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau by SS men. (Late May/early June 1944). The inmates from the train came from the Hungarian region of Carpatho-Ruthenia, most of them from the ghetto of Berehevo (Beregszasz). Women and children (left) and men (right) were assessed for their ability to work. Those deemed unable to work were murdered. The Wehrmacht occupied Hungary, which was still allied with Germany, on March 19, 1944. Between then and July 9, 1944, more than 437,000 Hungarian Jews were deported. The Holocaust claimed at least 550,000 lives in Hungary. The photo is from an SS photo documentation known as the "Auschwitz Album."

Latvian Jewish women and children are shot by Einsatzkommando (special mobile unit), December 15-17, 1941. This mass killing claimed 2,754 lives and took place on the dunes of the Baltic.

Exploitation of Jewish property: bidders and spectators probably at an auction of household goods and linens that deported Jews had to leave behind; Hanau, updated (1942). The photographer was the head of Hanau City Picture Archive.

Third deportation of Jews from Main franken: deportation victims during the march from the Gestapo assembly point to Aumuhle Station, Wurzburg, April 25, 1942. Gestapo and SS guards, in the background, bystanding spectators. On April 25, 1942, 852 men, women, and children from Wurzburg and various surrounding rural districts were transported to Krasnystaw in the Generalgouvernment in Poland. They were marched to Krasniczyn. Those who had survived up to then were probably marched to Sobibor extermination camp on June 6, 1942. The photograph was taken by a photographer from the Wurzburg Gestapo office.

Jewish deportation victims embarking on a German Railroad convoy train at Bielefeld Station, December 13, 1941. The passengers on this convoy who came from districts of Munster and Osnabruck and from Bielefeld and the vicinity, were deported to Riga Ghetto. The photo came from a Bielefeld war chronicle, made by the Bielefeld City Authority.

Deportation of Jews in Gailingen on Lake Constance, October 22, 1940. Deportation victims get into an Order Police truck. Foreground: Officers from the Order Police involved in the operation; background: neighbors looking on. 178 Jewish men and women from Gailingen, the biggest Jewish rural community in Baden, were deported to Gurs camp in the south of France.

Workers form the Corrugated Aluminum Works in Singen on a carnival float decorated as a dragon, Singen, 1939. The "Jewish" costume accessories include long, hooked cardboard noses. The figures of the dragon swallowing Jews is a variation of the Nazipropoganda's stereotype depiction of destruction of the "Jewish threat."

The carnival float with the slogan The last Lebanese Tyroleans are getting out makes the forced expulsion of Jews into a carnival topic by presenting pupils and teachers from the Ekkehard School in Singen dressed up as "Jews"; Singen, 1938. The "Jewish" costume accessories include long, hooked card board noses.

Jewish residents of Oldenburg taken into "protective custody" are led by SA men through the city streets to the prison; November 10, 1938.

I will not forget.

All of these pictures are photographs of photographs that are on display at Topography of Terror in Berlin. This exhibition is available free to the public.

West is Best?

I usually hate when tourists take pictures in inappropriate places (like prisons!) -- and taking smiley pictures in front of the Berlin Wall is not quite fitting -- but I did it anyway.

It's such a piece of history.

Most of the remaining portions of the Berlin Wall are painted: well-done professional paintings, scribbles, scratches, spray-painted. It's all there, and most etchings communicate something significant.

Ever wanted a GDR stamp in your passport? They're still available in some tourist shops. Crazy!

Typical Subway Station in Berlin: Practically Empty.

When we first entered the subway in Berlin, we were wondering if the station was actually closed .... it was that desolate.

Berlin is majorly underpopulated and you can see the effects everywhere.

View from my parent's hotel window -- note the empty buildings.

When people fled, they fled. And have yet to return.

But some are making the best of it .....

Hence the former Communist blocs that have been painted cheerful colors.

Yet it's still typical to walk past buildings like this.


However - there are bright spots!

Leisure Sunday Brunch in East Berlin = Best Idea Ever

If you're ever going to Berlin, do it over a weekend and make brunch a priority. If you like food, I cannot rave enough about the huge and varied German buffets .... yum!

Friedrichshain Neighborhood: Heart of the East


Berlin is an endlessly fascinating city -- albeit not the prettiest European destination. There's so much recent history to digest that a weekend is not enough to see and do everything.

One other fascinating thing about Berlin: We did not hear Americans anywhere.

Fav Berlin Photo

Counter-culture still rules in East Berlin. Haircuts, hair color, clothing, piercings, home furnishings. All of it is so distinguishable from other "sophisticated" and "cultured" parts of Western Europe. The populace of East Berlin fought oppression, overcame, and still hang on to many of their former sentiments and forms of expression. Thus, it's not surprising that spray painted facades cover the area -- especially Friedrichshain. Walking along Simon-Dach-Strafsse I saw the above and had to snap a photo of it.

The story behind the painting fascinates me -- even though I know nothing of its' origin. Yet, curiosity still pierces me. Who painted this? Are they remembering the past? Addressing some Neo faction in the area? What prompted the artist to spray paint the above in 2009 when Nazis haven't terrorized humanity and ruled Germany in over 60 years?

Perhaps the painting is a prompt to the rest of the world that formerly oppressed segments of the German populace won't let it happen again. Who knows ....... nonetheless, it's fascinating.