Never Assume...

The other day Dan and I were exploring downtown Berlin when we came across this area that had an assortment of different sized cement blocks. We were both instantly intrigued so we went over to go take pictures with them. Of course I wanted to be difficult and try and take the coolest picture I could think of so I thought it would be a good idea to get on top of them and walk to the middle and have a picture of me standing on them. I did not know if I was allowed to do this or not, but I didn’t really see why I wouldn’t be able to so I went with it.

            As I am hoping cement block to cement I start hearing, “Halo, Halo! Halo!” and then see a security guard walking towards me. I instantly knew to get down and then the man left me alone. After that I had to figure out what this place was because clearly it was important seeing as there is a security guard and set rules at this place. So as Dan and I are walking we find information on it and I instantly feel horrible for my actions…. I had just been walking across the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of the Europe a.k.a The Holocaust Memorial. I felt so disrespectful, but at the same time I just had to laugh at myself because I would do something like that.

            However, after a while I didn’t feel that bad because there were multiple people that were just sitting on it and my host sister, Luise, informed me that a lot of young people come here at night whether drunk or sober and play hide and go seek through the columns.

            This memorial is really cool though. It has 2,711 concrete slabs that are arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field.