BERLIN

A very late entry on Berlin, where we went a week before Amsterdam. Berlin was a place we enjoyed not for the fun and famous nightlife, but more for the fantastic history lesson that we had. Berlin is a place where a shoestring traveller cant just walk around with a guidebook to fully appreciate its history. We couldn't have learnt so much if not for the 10 thumbs-up Sandeman's Free Berlin Tour. So if anyone is heading for Berlin anytime soon, be sure to catch it! It's FREE :) But i guarantee that by the end of the tour you are sooo impressed by the fantastic guides that you will fork out 6 euro tip each like we did. (eh alot ok?)We started our tour at the Brandenburg Gate. The statue you see up there is Victoria, the Goddess of Victory (holding the victory stick with a bird) riding the 4-horse chariot into the city gates. A long time ago, the statue was actually Irina, the goddess of peace. Instead of the victory stick, Irina holds a golden leave. When Napolean came to Berlin, he demanded that Irina be brought back to France. So they dragged Irina down and it stood on the Arc right in front of the Lourve in Paris. When Germany attacked France a decade or so later, it defeated France and pulled down Irina again to return to Berlin. This time round, they replaced Irina with Victoria and named the square Pariser Platz, i.e. victory over the french. An even more interesting fact it that Victoria is looking down towards the left, exactly on the present-day French embassy!This story was so intriguing that I digged up my Paris photos and there we have the REPLICA Irina at the arc! Hitler's bunker: He committed suicide at the bunker below this innocent-looking patch of grass.Berlin Wall: This is the place where an uncountable number of East Germans were shot dead, while failing to escape to what could be a much brighter future in West Germany. Checkpoint Charlie The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe: This is located a 5min walk from Brandenburg gate, a prime location with a high amount of human traffice. This space was specially picked for this reason, to constantly remind people of the atrocity that was commited and to remember the innocent lives perished.As we walk through the paths surrounded by these stone blocks, it gets colder and darker as we approach the center, where the blocks are the highest. It makes you experience the immense fear that the Jews felt, not knowing what will jump out in front or behind you, and feeling the Nazis standing so high above you like the stone blocks, terrorizing you.The Book-burning square: This square is surrounded by beautiful buildings, one being the Law School of Humboldt University. HU is famous for the many Nobel Prize winners who graduated from here, and also cos Albert Einstein taught here before!Bebelplatz Memorial: It was to remember book-burning event when books with "un-German" ideas were burnt. Through this glass, you can see a huge room surrounded by empty bookshelves, shelves that could have contained all 25000+ books burnt that day. You can also see the reflection of yourself, which serves as a reminder of how we should reflect and learn from this event. Beside it lies a plaque with a quote by German-Jewist author Heinrich Heinethat, whose book written years ago, was also burnt that night. "That was merely a prelude. Wherever they burn books, eventually they will burn people too" He was so right.

Berliner Dom: What a magnificent architecture!Schloss Charlottenburg, a summer palaceA nice pic snapped by Nicole while we were strolling in the palace.The Reichstag: It is famous for its glass dome, which signifies its openess and its willingness to be transparent to its people. The glass dome is open to visitors everyday and from up there, you can see right to the plastic blue seats of the parliament! Kaiser Wilhelm Church Berlin Ring Olympic StadiumSachsenhausen concentration camp: You can't see a single drop of blood or a hint of the atrocities that were committed here just 70 years ago, yet the compound sent chills down our spines as we listen to the stories our guide told the group solemnly.
Below, Chris explains the 'Death March'. As the Russians approach towards the end of the war, the Nazis moved the inmates from Sachsenhausen to death camps, their purpose: if they don't die from exhaustion along the way, they just die in the death camps."Work Makes You Free": A common misconception is that concentration camps were places where the 'Enemies of the state' get killed systematically, with horrible things like gas chambers. NO, inmates are brought here to WORK, sooo hard that over 100,000 died from exhaustion, disease, malnutrition or pneumonia. There were of course those who died as the result of brutal 'medical' experimentation. Concentration camps are at the outskirts of the city, because the Nazis obviously didn't want any of their own people to see the uglier side of their ruling. Death camps, where the primary function was genocide, are located outside Germany, most in Poland.
A pillar with inverted red triangles, a symbol of communists, erected after the Russian took over the camp.
Just 1 of the many torture method used: Prisoner's hands are tied behind his back, lifted up to hang with their backs against the pole. So imagine, the guard lets go of him and his weight to pull him down, thereby ripping his arms out of his shoulder sockets. It's sad.



?Did you know? It is illegal to do the 'Hail Hitler' salute in Germany. Not only will whoever you insult as 'Nazi' get extremely offended, if he decide to report you to the police, you will be arrested. Our guide had the experience of reporting 2 drunk girls, aged 18 and 19, to the local police because they were doing the Nazi march, singing the Nazi song and above all, scolding his tour group "F you foreigner, get out of Germany" (smtg like that), which ended up in a tussle with one of the tour member. The older girl, tried as an adult, ended up with a jailterm of 10 years. Just so you know.

I think the biggest lesson we can take away from this tour of Berlin is how the Germans face up to their mistakes. They admit to and regret the atrocities their ancestors had committed, educate their future generations what they should learn from it. No lies, nothing to hide. And I can tell you honestly that the Germans are ashamed of their past. Take that Japan, the world awaits the day when you truly feel remorseful about your past.