Warnemunde, Germany (Berlin) May 24, 2012

WARNING: This is our trip to Berlin stopping first at Sacsenhausen Concentration Camp. The pictures are not easy to view as they may invoke your imagination of the atrocities which occurred there . I believe everyone should see these so if you are offended then take a dose of reality and grit your teeth or do whatever it takes and scroll through eye witness history.
      Our ship was greeted by a red train outside of the terminal. The staff were actually outside of the train waving to us as we docked. Very cool when we found out the red train was for the Berlin excursion. We weren't able to get seats together but we were in the same car.

Kathie, Jeff and I listened to audio books and Terry had a puzzle book to help the time pass.      The train ride took about an hour and half as we headed to Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum that was a concentration camp. Most people were quiet with their own thoughts unsure of how to prepare for what is ahead of us.

 The land is very different than Dittelbrunn, Schweinfurt area where I lived in the mid 70's. It is where our son, Rick was born and the memories came as fast as the train was moving. Memories of my youth and adventures! I would have loved to travel to the little village where we lived.

 We got off the train and walked right into the concentration camp. Very sobering. For me it seems as though the whispers of the leaves were the voices of the past. The German citizens in this town were not told what was being built and readied here.

The model of buildings that used to be here. 

The Germans have done an amazing job of telling the stories of those tortured and killed. The ugly truth supported by photos, actual buildings, documents that were found...all of it laid out for the world to see what happened and how. 

I believe this says "Work will set you free". So incredible. They were sent to torture areas and starved, shot or gassed.

 There are still thousands buried behind this wall.

This rough patch of pavement area is where they forced inmates to walk for days in new materials to see how the boot would hold up for the German soldiers.

I just couldn't see Kathie's smiling, pretty face here with the Monaco hat. My heart was bleeding by this time hearing the whispers in the wind.

More than 200,000 people were imprisoned in camp between 1936 and 1945. These metal barracks were where the Jewish prisons were kept.

Up to 400 inmates at a time would have to use the urinals. 

Wash area, again for 400 at a time...unless the guards are drowning one of them.

Torture poles - hang the victim by their arms behind their backs. 

The memorial was made to represent the smoke stack. The GDR government emphasized the memory of political prisoners over other groups, hence the inclusion of eighteen red triangles on each side of the obelisk. These were meant to commemorate the eighteen nationalities of the political prisoners held at Sachsenhausen during the Nazi era. 

This was the firing squad area. On the left side area the prisoners would be executed and on the right are the gas chambers to dispose of the bodies.

The flowers are left by the school children on field trips...pause for a moment and consider that. Yes, these kids appeared to be junior high or high school and yes, some were not being very respectful but the fact that they were being marched through this kind of memorial and museum says a lot.

Gas chambers.

Original pictures of the chambers.

Awards for design. 2007 International Architecture Award of the Chicago Athaneum Museum of Architecture and Design,

After Sachsenhausen we headed to Check Point Charlie and got a tour and photo stops along the way in Berlin. Many times the guide would say "we are now in what used to be East Berlin" or "now we crossed into West Berlin". Amazing how the city was so chopped up.

Check Point Charlie was incredible to see. Huge, life-size posters all over the place and large sections of the wall all decorated and painted. There is a brick line in the street where the wall used to be and is everywhere the wall used to be in the entire city.

The bricks show where the wall used to be.

Here you have the typical Soviet souvenirs but we didn't get time to shop. Didn't see any steins anyway!

Sections of the original wall still remain.

I was bummed that the bus was moving so fast. At least you get the idea of all the gold.

Kathie and the Monaco hat in the square of the Brandenburg Gate of Berlin, over 200 years old. Also in this square is the hotel Michael Jackson was staying in when he decided to "dangle" his son, Blanket over the ledge. !!

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 square metres (4.7 acres) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs

This was a tower on the West side and preserved.

Now this was interesting. The building behind by the cars is where a man dug a tunnel to the West for his girlfriend/fiance. Twenty nine people went into the house didn't come back!

Huge poster showing the escape out of windows.

So this is the red train with waving staff members as we arrived. It was waiting to take what appeared to be a thousand of the Eurodam passengers. These pictures are of our return after a long, emotional day.

Long line to get back through German point of entry.

Not photo enhanced and yes, it's real.

A little out of order but I don't want to mess everything else up by moving it! the four of us standing on the brick path of the former wall with a piece of the torn down wall.