We met up with Helmut after breakfast and he drove us to Sachsenhausen concentration camp for a tour. Built predominantly as a model camp for political and war prisoners. Its atrocities were reserved on equal share for the Jews, POWs, or post-war Nazies and Germans. Particularly heart breaking were the ovens and pathology lab where the bodies of the victims of the medical expirementaion were laid upon white tiled tables and then dumped into voluminous cellar for the pick-up.
Helmut presented an interesting and conflicting picture - a son of a German child soldier who served time in Siberia, a brother-in-law of a Ukrainian POW, and a son-in-law of escaped SS soldier condemned to death penalty for mass murders in France. He is a trained geographer but gives these tours and drives the cab to make living.
When he was growing up in post-war Germany, his teachers were the same ones who taught Hitler youth. That was simply the generation of people who lived through the period. Over time, when Germans came to terms with what happened and smartly scoped down what had happened as something that was done by Nazis and Fascists rather than Germans it became easier to describe the past in those terms. In reality, with the entire population subjected to propaganda and fear tactics, few escaped the fate of being both Germans and Nazis.
In the same way as Russians were complicit in the atrocities under Stalin. In the same way we are all complicit in the atrocities under Trump and Sessions that break up families who had, like all of us had, come to us with their last hope seeking the shelter. In that sense, the 14 year old conscipted to fight in the war and the person who had been offered position in SS forces is in position to either die or comply. The option to do something different gets harder to take.
I wonder what goes through the mind of people like Helmut who make themselves into the Faustian guides watching the sadness, anger, and fear of their charges. As Polinka rightfully commented, unless they directly belong to the group that had this shared experience, they can emphasize with but not truly understand it. In the same way we emphasize with but can never truly understand what it’s like to be black in the US. They, not us (not yet anyway, a Jew in me says) wake up every day with their history, and not knowing whether this is the day they will become the victim of police brutality.
In any case Helmut looked surprised but obliged when we asked to be dropped off sowhere fun with good food after our tour. He left us near the lovely neighborhood in West Berlin, whereby we’ve dedicated ourselves to stopping at and sampling at every one of his suggested options. The final stop was the best currywurst in town not too far from Pension Fischer where we lived. We spent over an hour looking for the place, and saw a few interesting options at the heart of gay neighborhood, but ultimately gave up and had our final beers of the day in a non-exciting steakhouse, which nonetheless had the same fast efficient and courterous service as every other restaurant we’ve eaten yet so far.
Helmut presented an interesting and conflicting picture - a son of a German child soldier who served time in Siberia, a brother-in-law of a Ukrainian POW, and a son-in-law of escaped SS soldier condemned to death penalty for mass murders in France. He is a trained geographer but gives these tours and drives the cab to make living.
When he was growing up in post-war Germany, his teachers were the same ones who taught Hitler youth. That was simply the generation of people who lived through the period. Over time, when Germans came to terms with what happened and smartly scoped down what had happened as something that was done by Nazis and Fascists rather than Germans it became easier to describe the past in those terms. In reality, with the entire population subjected to propaganda and fear tactics, few escaped the fate of being both Germans and Nazis.
In the same way as Russians were complicit in the atrocities under Stalin. In the same way we are all complicit in the atrocities under Trump and Sessions that break up families who had, like all of us had, come to us with their last hope seeking the shelter. In that sense, the 14 year old conscipted to fight in the war and the person who had been offered position in SS forces is in position to either die or comply. The option to do something different gets harder to take.
I wonder what goes through the mind of people like Helmut who make themselves into the Faustian guides watching the sadness, anger, and fear of their charges. As Polinka rightfully commented, unless they directly belong to the group that had this shared experience, they can emphasize with but not truly understand it. In the same way we emphasize with but can never truly understand what it’s like to be black in the US. They, not us (not yet anyway, a Jew in me says) wake up every day with their history, and not knowing whether this is the day they will become the victim of police brutality.
In any case Helmut looked surprised but obliged when we asked to be dropped off sowhere fun with good food after our tour. He left us near the lovely neighborhood in West Berlin, whereby we’ve dedicated ourselves to stopping at and sampling at every one of his suggested options. The final stop was the best currywurst in town not too far from Pension Fischer where we lived. We spent over an hour looking for the place, and saw a few interesting options at the heart of gay neighborhood, but ultimately gave up and had our final beers of the day in a non-exciting steakhouse, which nonetheless had the same fast efficient and courterous service as every other restaurant we’ve eaten yet so far.
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