After World War Two the Russians and EST German Stasi police had control of East Germany and East Berlin. To keep the people under communist control the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and stayed up until 1989. From 1950 to 1990 the Stasi police arrested approx 250,000 citizens. The Russian KGB over saw the Stasi police force.
The Stasi Museum
Museums like this keep the memory alive, in hope that man kind won’t repeat these atrocities.
1960s display of the Stasi police uniforms and weapons. The Russian KGB were the over seers of the Stasi police force. They ruled thru intimidation, threats to family members, psychological and physical torture.Remnants of the Berlin Wall remain. It’s too tall to climb, rounded top that makes it difficult to climb over and there is a death zone if you get over the wall where guards in the towers would shoot those who attempt to escape. The other threat was that the Stasi would harm your family if you escaped.
Cut away view of the wall. It was well built with steel reinforcement and thick enough concrete at its base to defend against automobiles attempting to drive thru it.
The first new camp to be established by SS Heinrich Himmler as Chief of the German Police in 1936. It is located about 45 minutes from the center of Berlin. The complex was a model for all the future concentration camps.
More than 200,000 people were imprisoned here from 1936 to 1945. The Nazi regime first imprisoned political dissidents and then people they felt were racially or biologically inferior. Tens of thousands were put to death here by firing squads, gas chambers, an unethical medical research. And many died of malnutrition and decease.
And as they say the rest is history.
This excursion for us was a 4 hour history lesson. A very sobering history lesson! Much of the camp was destroyed after the Russians liberated the prisoners on April 22, 1945.
From 1961 to 1993 the camp was turned into a memorial and museum.
We as mankind, should never forget the atrocities of these times.
If we don’t study history and pass these lessons down to future generations we may be doomed to repeat the past! May this never happen again.
Our tour guide Anne, very knowledgeable and passionate about sharing her knowledge about the concentration camp and what went on there for 6 years.Entrance to SachenhausenThe famous words at the entrance gate of most of the camps , WORK WILL SET YOU FREE.Ann is holding a chart depicting the patches that the prisoners wore identifying them as to the criminal group that they belonged to. They were marked as Jews, communists, homosexuals, spies, political dissidents…….. and on and onThere were 70 beds in a barrack building but sometimes up to 300 prisoners lived in a buildingRemnants of the crematorium ovensA mass grave marker covering who knows how many bodies
One of the few East Berlin communist symbols remains in East Berlin. The ‘Walk’, ‘Wait’ pedestrian lights are unique. Karl Peglau, a medical traffic psychologist, spent 8 years developing the little men displayed on cross walk signals. He started design work in 1961 and they were implemented in 1969 and are still in use today.
The “wait” symbolAnd the “Walk” symbol. Just a little bit of German trivia😊
Our bags made it to Berlin… yea!!! The Viking trip leader coordinated with the Viking people at the airport. Saved me a round trip taxi ride($70 each way). And instead of spending the day getting our bags we met up with mom’s friend, Marianne and husband, Greg snd did a walk and local bus ride. Went out for lunch and saw checkpoint Charlie, the famous gate between East and west Berlin during the Cold War.A piece of the Berlin Wall Patty and Marianne with a base of the old wall between them.Looking from East Berlin (communist controlled) to the American side of Berlin . The little shack in the lower right corner is the famous guard shack known as Checkpoint Charlie.
We got to the hotel 5 minutes before the bar closed. So we got a drink to celebrate a messed up journey.
It took us 23 hours to get to the hotel and I have to go back to the airport at 1 pm tomorrow to get our bags. We could have had them delivered but were told the bags might not get delivered for two days!
Andy dropped us off at Detroit Airport at 1pm Monday Lunch at max and Erma’s at the airport Monday
Started out on time out of Detroit at 6:30 pm Monday night. Then it was a 2 hour connection to fly to Berlin and arrive at 11am. Looked good on paper 🤣
Then our Berlin flight had a gate change and an airplane change and then we pushed back an hour late. Still not too bad. Then they couldn’t get the second engine started. We had to taxi out away from the terminal and wait for a bus to pick us up. It was a mad house to get to a transfer desk and get rebooked. Now we are sitting in Amsterdam for 6 hours, flying to Copenhagen and then connecting to Berlin 😬. If all goes as planned it will be a 24 hour trip to get to Berlin. looking forward to a German beer!!!
I’m looking forward to seeing the old Berlin Wall and check point Charlie. It seems like yesterday that I was sitting nuclear alert guarding the west coast and Canadian border against communist aggression!
one of us is packed and ready, one is not quite ready🤣.
First stop is Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. Population is 500,000. We walked about the city, take cabs, and ride the hop on hop off bus.
One big hill up to the castle. I walked, Patty took a cab with a few others in our group. A fun stop was the royal yacht, HMS Britannia, it is set up as a museum on the waterfront(The Firth of Forth). A couple of days of walking around and then it was off to Aberdeen.
The rainy forecast never materialized. We’ve had great weather so far!A welcome to Scotland at a rest stop on the highwayWalking to the Edinburgh castle
