Used as the prototype for all other concentration camps, Sachsenhausen is only an hour out of Berlin. What was even more astounding was that the surrounding villages with their beautiful homes are within a few metres of the boundary of this horrific camp. No one in this village may dare claim that they did not know!
These 4 cartoons are found in the kitchen within the camp and preserved behind glass to prevent damage from those trying to destroy any evidence. Look carefully at the faces, the joys in the simple pleasures, These images still make me cry.
I have many more pictures but some where too disturbing to post. Email me directly if you are interested in further images. These thin walled buildings housed hundreds of thousand of innocent people. May we never forget!
A building in the town of Sachsenhausen - the words translate to love, freedom and tolerance.
The Berlin Museum showing the time line of history from the turn of last century. The picture above is of the toys children played with in the 1940s. The picture below is about the burning of the books. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. So just about all books of value then!
Post WWII the paranoia set in and the city of Berlin prepared for the cold war by building bunkers. Now for a bright nations this was truly one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen. The concept was brilliant, to provide water, food, and shelter for few hundred people protecting them from any radiation - well that is if they got there. For any chance of survival, the people had to get there within 30 minute. Thereafter, the doors would have been locked indefinitely, with no people entering or leaving - sorry but i would rather take my chances on the street. This picture I will always treasure as it depict the emotional responses and reflects the human behaviour of our human race, showing how we were driven psychologically, by fear. This reign of fear lasted the duration of the cold war from 1945 till 1991, when the Berlin wall came down.
The holocaust memorial swallows you up into its depth of darkness.
Check point charlie was the checkpoint between the west and the east, between freedom and communism. Close your eyes and imagine the chaos of families being torn apart by a wall. And the side you ended up on was pot luck. I picture my siblings with their families living in different towns and the thought of not being able to see them from 1945 till 1991 is incomprehensible. Now imagine some young 18 year old soldier given the responsibility of deciding who can enter or not? I get cold shivers.
Berlin has some of the most brilliant architecture and grafitti
This bar clearly said no photos so I apologise in advance but it is truly wonderful and well worth a visit. Berlin is filled with surprises, quirkiness and delights.
The Nazis killed gays, the Russians have anti-gays laws and continue to be homophobic - Yet here 2 men stand confidently with 2 gay women taking turns to photograph themselves in front of this iconic picture at the East Side Gallery. Life is beautiful.
This is nothing specific other than the geometric design of iron hangers.
