Day 82 - Jewish museum

Today was a whole pile of crazy. Practically everything that could go wrong eventually did. We started off rather well with a great breakfast and getting to see the Jewish museum. Our tour guide was really cool and quirky, often getting really enthusiastic about the symbols of the museum and the Jewish way of life. He took us through the start of the museum that was an intersection of three different lines: Continuity of German history, Emigration from Germany, and the Holocaust. One thing that was really interesting was the fact that the entire underground passageway was on an angle, giving a representation of how off-kilter the Jews would have felt during this time period. Each of the axis represented and showed different things, but in the Holocaust axis, the corridor got smaller and smaller as you reached a dead end wall. Except the wall wasn't a complete dead end, you could open the wall and walk into a cell. A cold, dark cell that had almost no light except for the small window of light in the smallest corner that was reflected off of the concrete. You couldn't even see the sky because of the way that the window was situated. This whole setup represented how the Jewish people began to be trapped and how they must have felt with no where to really go in Germany, ending in a cell that is reminiscent to a concentration camp cell with practically no hope of rescue.

On the Emigration from Germany axis, there was a light at the end of the corridor with a stairwell that would lead to the rest of the museum. At the top of the stairs, you could look down at the long journey that you had just gone through and only see the platforms, making it feel like the journey wasn't actually that bad. This was also a deliberate thing the architect set up that showed what emigrating Jews might have felt once they were out of Germany. This started the actual museum about the history of Jewish tradition and the persecution of Jews throughout the ages that ended in the Holocaust. As we traveled the length of the museum, we saw some strange small windows in the corridors that opened up to a big, empty space. This symbolized that despite all the best efforts, a lot of things in the Holocaust that was related to the Jews (gravestones, living conditions, etc.) was lost in the war. these big empty spaces symbolized that no matter what, there would still be something missing in the exhibit.

We traveled through the very confusing museum through the decades and saw how Jews went from being extremely poor exiled travelers to relatively well-off exiled citizens. I say exiled because even though the Jewish people were needed and in fact came up with a lot of things that we still use today, they just so happened to be one of society's favorite scapegoats whenever things went wrong. In ancient times it was because they were foreign, in the Middle Ages it was because of the plague. This pattern continued throughout history until it came to a head during WWII. We didn't actually get to see the effects of Hitler and his regime with our tour guide because our time with him was up, but we did get to use the 45 minutes afterwords to walk around the museum and see the things we hadn't come across yet. We eventually walked through the entire exhibit and ended back where we started.

We had some time to do whatever we wanted and eat lunch after the museum, so I got a really awesome pin (finally! I was beginning to get worried), ate some food, and headed to the Jewish memorial. We had a hard time getting there, but we did arrive and had some time to walk around the inside of the structure. The whole purpose of the memorial was to make you feel uncomfortable, and with pillars three times as tall as a person in the center of the memorial, it did a fairly good job. Unfortunately, we were surrounded by these people at one point that were advocating for deaf and disabled...something. They wouldn't speak to us, just wanted us to sign something and give them money. I think they were pickpockets because at one point one of us noticed that they were taking money out of their bags, and snatched it before they could run off. Also, Johanna threw their clipboard on the ground and got them angry enough to break the charade and yell at us, responding to what we were saying. It just wasn't a good experience.

We left the memorial and met everyone at the Hauptbahnhof to get on our bus to Dutterstadt. The entire ride was 4 hours long, which was fine since I was able to write up an account of yesterday, but it did make us restless and a bit irritable. This didn't change when we got to where we were supposed to be staying because it turns out they didn't have our rooms. Surprise! Kristin had the confirmation and the front desk had the confirmation, but the rooms were not in the system so we had not place to stay. As Kristin and Dr. Wasser tried to figure out where we would stay, we had an impromptu group dinner at the Chinese place next door. It was good food, and a lot of fun, but I would have much preferred a smaller amount and more time to relax in the room. We figured out where we were going to be staying, finished up dinner, and loaded back onto the bus.

The new place we were staying at was 30 minutes away, and I definitely got restless on the bus. So restless, that I volunteered to give back massages to people so my hands would have something to do. It was a win-win situation because my hands were able to do something and everyone else was able to relax. We finally arrived at the hotel, which was nice, but we only had enough time to put away our luggage and sit for a few minutes before meeting back up again to go through the presentations again. Luckily, this time we had an actual conference room to present in and everyone seemed to be really confident in their designs, making the entire process go by smoothly and as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the further distance from Dutterstadt meas we have to meet up earlier, so tomorrow's the earliest day yet. At least after tomorrow the entire project will be over and we won't have to stress about it any more. Tomorrow we go to Otto Bock for the entire day and see their facilities, which will be nice. I'm sure by this time tomorrow, most of my stress will have disappeared and I'll be much happier with this semester.

Again, due to the slowness of the internet here, the pictures will be added in a separate post tomorrow. Also, if you haven't read about yesterday and the concentration camp and the gardens (yes, a very jarring combination) then please scroll down to the previous post and learn about that.

Till tomorrow!
Erin Z