Berlin

After a week of getting used to life in Germany, the Grunberg family was pretty on top of things. Soon it was time for a long car ride to Berlin. Berlin is the most amazing place I have ever seen! There were buildings from hundreds of years ago and they were all beautiful. One of my favorite sites was a water fountain with a statue of Neptune in the middle. Various sea creatures were spouting water up at Neptune and mermaids sat on the edge. However, there is a darker side to Berlin. As we learned, the nazis were a huge part of the history of Berlin. Among the buildings we visited were places where the nazis had had there headquarters.. We also saw a place where old and sick people were deported and learned that 50-150 people were deported to camps each month from that place alone. I was especially sad when we walked along underground torture/gas chambers where many had died. Right near the torture cells was a Holocaust musuem and it was so overwhelming to read the poster boards inside that we left about halfway through. About thirty years later, Berlin had another catastrophe. After WW2, Germany was in disrepair. In efforts to try to rebuild the country, the four nations who had won the war temporarily split Germany into four parts (one for each victorious nation). The same was done with Berlin. However, Russia soon grew greedy and wanted their part of Berlin permanantly. Berlin was again split, this time in two. Russia had one half, the east, and the other three nations (America, England, and France) had the other, the west. The west side was much better, because the Russians were not very nice to their people. The east, meaning Russia, built a huge wall with barbed wire and other little walls to keep its people in. This wall was called the Berlin wall and very few people ever made it across. Those who did make it had very creative strategies like using tunnels or submarines. The west side welcomed newcomers and sometimes helped people escape from the east side. My two favorite stories were very entertaining. The first was just a picture of a woman trying to escape out of the window of an east Berlin house. A guard is trying to haul her back into the house by her arm, and two west Berliners are trying to pull her into West Berlin by her foot. The second story is about a family of three who hid in a toilet near the wall. Once it was night time, they lowered each other over the wall by pulley. I believe both tries were successful. About 20 years ago, the residents of the east started rebelling and the wall was eventually taken down. We were able to walk along a path that marked were it had been and even saw some original pieces. It was all very interesting.