Though not intentional, this past weekend turned out to be focused on Nazi Germany. On Saturday, I recruited Lili and Brenda to go on a walking tour with me. I'd heard really good things about the walking tours in Berlin and have been eager to go on one since I arrived. Since we didn't get our act together early enough in the day, we missed the general Berlin tour but decided to take the Infamous Third Reich Sites tour. Back in high school, I took a 3-wk class on Nazi Germany at Western MD (before it was called McDaniel College) so I was excited to re-learn the history "on location" as it were. It was a 3-hr tour, but the time flew by because the information was so captivating. Our guide (who was from Baltimore!) gave very detailed stories covering Hitler's rise and fall.
On Sunday, a group of us visited Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp on the outskirts of Berlin. While it was primarily a camp for political prisoners and prisoners of war, it also held Jews who were typically en-route to Auschwitz or other death camps. It was a training camp for SS troops who were then deployed elsewhere and there was also a crematorium there. After WWII, it was converted into a Soviet Special Camp (not exactly a step up). To say it was sobering is inadequate.
I've posted pictures from the weekend if you're interested.
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DID YOU KNOW? Third Reich = 3rd Empire...but 3rd of which? The Roman Empires...
After Ancient Rome and the Holy Roman Empire, Hitler had plans for another 1,000 year empire. Europe was to be the center, with provincial capitals of newly acquired territories in places like Cape Town, South Africa, Ankara, Turkey...and Washington DC.
Nazi tours are always so uplifting. While that part of the history is facinating, it was only a small (albeit horrible) blip of their history. I was glad to see you've been to Potsdam to enjoy other eras of German history!
as always great pictures!
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