The Dark Side of Humanity

The Dark side of Humanity

March 23, 2012:

We arrived in Berlin after a long journey from Morocco that started at four a.m. and ended with our landing at five p.m. Carla, my mom’s cousin, greeted us with a warm hug at the airport and excited chatter immediately ignited between the two of them. Carla, her husband Matthias, and their daughter Marissa treated us to dinner at a traditional Italian restaurant. The waiter was very involved and kept us happy for the three-hour extravaganza, which consisted of five courses.

March 24, 2012:

Today we embarked on an intense tour of Berlin. It started off with a visit to our host’s beehive. I have never met any apiarists before, but after hearing from their passionate voices what it entails and observing the inner workings of the hive, I could see how this hobby would be extremely rewarding, especially when it’s time to harvest such a succulent investment!

If the train was scheduled to arrive at 12:58 it would be there at 12:57 and 58 seconds. The Germans run their entire country like a machine.

We rode the train—which provided us with a great view of the massive city (population: 3.5 million)—downtown. Walking up to Brandenburg Gate, I had an ominous feeling of the atrocities that occurred there during WWII. This symbolic monument was staring me right in the face. The numerous tourists stumbling around lightened our visit, but as I toured the museum and read about the warfare and bloody conflicts that took place, I felt myself drain emotionally. That, combined with the memorial created to remember the Holocaust’s victims, was very heavy to take in.

Brandenburg Gate

The museum also honoured the many heroes who demonstrated courage and integrity during this gruesome time. The acts of inhumanity committed against innocent people were unfathomable for me to contemplate, but to see how many people willingly sacrificed their own safety—and even their lives—for others was inspiring.

One story and name that stood out to me was Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish businessman, diplomat and humanitarian whose efforts helped save almost one hundred thousand Hungarian Jews from persecution in Nazi concentration camps. For every villain who stains humanity, there is another seemingly ordinary person, who steps up with an immortal courage fueled by love for his or her fellow man. Wallenberg displayed how powerful the human spirit can be, and proved that unconditional love is the only force that will overcome evil.

March 25, 2012:

This old bunker, now transformed into a museum was so close to the subway that the walls rumbled during the tour.

A Sunday tour through the depths of a German bunker left me with one of the most impressive and chilling history lessons I’ve ever experienced. An enthusiastic former live theater actor guided us through one of the original bunkers built by Hitler (he constructed approximately twelve hundred bunkers in total). Most of the bunkers were destroyed after the war when Germany was demilitarized, but its close proximity to a subway station saved it—the city was trying to hang on to any remaining infrastructure in the war’s wake.

One of the few street level bunkers remaining.

Learning about history from 2-D pictures in textbooks is like trying to understand the intricate system of the human body from a copy of Grey’s Anatomy. The eerie atmosphere of the bunker, as well as the vividness of every blood-chilling story shared by our tour guide, captivated my attention more than the cadaver I dissected in first-year medical school. One of the most gut-wrenching facts I learned is that Berlin is the only location in Germany containing a cemetery reserved solely for those who committed suicide. After viewing the bunker and learning that by war’s end it became the main refuge for a large number of civilians, it was hard for me to imagine how anyone could maintain sanity in those conditions.

So what’s the point of anything if history just repeats itself? The opportunity to stop the cycle is now! More people than ever are gaining an awareness of their individual power, their capacity to live in a way that promotes a free world where common rights and freedoms are of the utmost priority. There are more educated people than ever before, but education accomplishes nothing if we neglect or refuse to focus on creating a positive difference in this world. At the end of the tour our guide highlighted how their organization was non-profit, dedicated only to educating the public to prevent similar events occurring in the future. Unfortunately, wars are constantly being waged in our world, and we need to educate ourselves about them. But with knowledge we can become empowered to reject living in fear; only then will we have the ability to create a peaceful and free society.

One of the most chilling murals on the Berlin Wall

March 26, 2012:

This is the view out the window of a bunker where Nazi prisoners lived

There is a certain sadness that will penetrate the very depths of your soul after spending a day at Auschwitz. When my mom initially discussed this tour with me, I didn’t want to go, but I ultimately felt it necessary to experience first-hand the horrors of Nazi Germany, and in turn pay my respects to the millions who suffered during this period of terror.

The tour started at 9:00 a.m. We walked through the electrified barbed wire gates that imprisoned the souls deemed worthless by the Nazis. The first camp, Auschwitz 1, couldhold twenty thousand prisoners. Soon, their need to mutilate more people initiated the construction of Birkenau, which imprisoned ninety thousand people and was the site of one of the largest mass murders in our history. Several buildings in the first camp had been developed into part of the museum, which saw approximately 1.4 million visitors in 2011.

The museums shocking displays included a glass case full of hair that was shaved off the prisoners upon their entry into the camp. The hair was then shipped to Germany and used for textile industries. The thought sent shivers down my entire being. The barracks that housed only children instantly brought tears to my eyes. Why did this tragedy happen? Why did it go on for so long? Why were so many people willing to go along with this madness? How confusing is the world we live in?

The fear and propaganda that was used, combined with ruthless totalitarianism, left little room for resistance. But there were over eight thousand SS soldiers that served in this camp during the war, and surely they didn’t all share the brutal instincts and lack of humanity required to complete “the final solution”—i.e. the complete annihilation of Jewish people. The gas chambers were the largest and most “efficient” method of executions designed by the Nazis. When it became apparent that defeat was inevitable, they tried to hide the evidence of their unfathomable crimes by dynamiting the chambers. The remains are still present, however, and offer thousands of daily visitors proof of the most systematic brutality ever carried out in human history.

The remains of one of the gas chambers

In the war trials that followed, very few SS officers faced severe penalties because many of them argued that they were simply following orders and trying to save their family’s lives.  Everyone is programmed with an instinct for survival, but what is life worth if you sell your soul to the devil?

It’s unnerving to contemplate how many people justify their actions without truly thinking about or analyzing anything at all. In many cases, a source of authority such as the government, the media, or the pressure of fellow citizens is all the justification needed to commit horrendous actions. It can be scary at first to try and think for yourself, because then you might actually feel compelled to change, and who wants to do that? But after analyzing your thoughts and beliefs it becomes clear how few of them are original, if any at all. When you become a part of the mob mentality you’re joining people who act like they’re drunk on idiocy! Everyone must learn to develop reasons for their actions. That way, when you make a mistake there is no one to blame but yourself—yet you can be sure that everything you are doing is justified by your own convictions and beliefs. Eventually we will all have to face ourselves, with no one else to shift the blame to.

March 27, 2012

Back to Berlin.

There is something so human about learning to sleep when you are tired, wake up without an alarm, and eat when you are hungry. Whenever you are free from your modern schedule, these basic tasks become pleasures.

Walking is definitely the best way to become intimately acquainted with a city. You pass young couples, businessmen, beggars, deliverymen, and, of course, the incessant sound of speeding vehicles, which turns it all into a sort of blurry dream. A talented musician playing a xylophone with double mallet hands entertained a market full of listeners; it requires real talent and courage to earn a living without editing your craft before selling it.

The Jewish museum consolidated everything from Auschwitz. It highlighted how interconnected we are, how momentous events affect nearly everyone on the planet in one way or another. There was a large focus on the Holocaust’s survivors. It struck me how strong a spirit a person must have to continue living after witnessing and suffering such tragedy. These survivors are a living testament to never give up.

Inside the Jewish Museum

The most devastating aspect of this experience was the reminder of similar tragedies that continue to rampage across our world, including genocide in countries like Rwanda, The Congo, and Sudan. Syria is currently suffering a vicious civil war. There’s the military coup in Mali…Where does it start or stop?

What can I do to help people in countries across the world? Instantly I feel like I am not doing enough to help these suffering people. Hopefully I can help create peace in the world around me because, well, that’s all I can do, aside from praying. Every day I try to focus on the best feeling I have—the knowledge that I have the ability to give.

One of the many monuments to the victims of the holocaust. The fallen chair was to represent how often people were ripped out of their homes with no warning.

I was initially surprised that the Germans were so forthcoming about their dark history. Memorials seem to be at every corner, museums are abundant and large pieces of the Berlin wall have been preserved and transformed into a mural. The Germans are smart; they realize that keeping an elephant in the room only creates discomfort and paralyzes any hope of moving forward.

Coming to terms with darkness by shedding light on it doesn’t remove it, but it allows progressive change, and hopefully it will eventually fade away into something like an old nightmare—the Germans are living proof of that. They know that those who do not learn about their history are condemned to repeat it.

This is a selection of some of the art that now covers the remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall