Teacher blog

Preparing my presentation on our school's museum project really helped me focus on the details of what we do.  However, speaking over the past few days with different teachers about ways to adapt it to their schools has gotten me even more excited and helped me to see new possibilities.  Thanks Everybody!

...although, different.

Three years ago I wrote a posting on my weblog, which I thought of when I was at the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe this afternoon. I will cut and paste it below. My daughter and one of my two sons (I., who was mentioned in my previous posting here) are mentioned. Today they are 14 and 6, respectively.

For some reason I am unable to upload the pictures of the Beem family that appeared in the original posting. You can see them here. 

This morning some of us traveled to Wannsee, the site of the 90 minute meeting where the arrangements to murder 6 million Jews were finalized. We ended with a visit to Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, where you can read about individual families and people. From the big picture to the individual stories...

For years the motto of many Holocaust Memorial ceremonies in Israel has been "Every Person Has a Name". The name Yad Vashem also links remembering the Holocaust with naming its victims, and giving them a face, or rather many, many faces. As Ed said this afternoon, one of the aims of Centropa is also to give memory and history a face. At the Monument for the Murdered Jews of Europe the same approach is used, in what I think is a very powerful manner. 

It was a nice ride through the history of Berlin. It reminded me why I love Berlin... Although heat affected us all. It was terribly hot. I hope all our joint projects come true.

The house was built in 1915 as a villa for Ernst Marlier, a factory owner. It was sold in 1921 to Friedrich Minoux, an industrialiast, and again in 1940 to the SS Nordhav foundation for use as a guest house for the Sicherheitdienst - the SD - the security service of the SS.

What an incredible shabbat in Berlin!  Although the weather has been very hot and it seems that air conditioning is not a priority in Germany, it still has been great!  I enjoyed services at the Rykestrasse Syangogue on Friday.  The style of the service is not what I am used to, but it was very German:  robes, traditional cantorial chanting, and the seperation of men and women,  Shabbat dinner was really enjoyable and everyone's spirits were high.  On Shabbat morning I went to visit the Wannsee House.

Four intensive Centropa days are  over and my head is brimming with faces and pictures, talks and conversations, inspiration and ideas, impressions and emotions... I will take a lot back home with me. Ideas of how to use Centropa in my school are taking shape. I' m very much looking forward to what is yet to come, as I've done each and every 'centropa-day'!

If you look at the photos... is no comment. And regarding the the old station ... I belive that the bullet holes from columns in front of the station looks like a code, a warning, in a language that we have forgotten.