First full day in Berlin - Trip day 8

Today we slept late and made ourselves a breakfast. We did not get out of the apartment until noon so we
decided to make it an easy day on us. We decided to go to the Jewish Museum. We purchased 7 day tickets for the Berlin Metro System and made our way through the maze of subway trains to the general area of the museum with no trouble at all. Today it was cloudy and rain sprinkles on and off, so a good day for a museum.

The museum is very striking, floors and ceiling at odd angles. The exterior of the zigzag building has slots (voids) in the exterior at all angles to represent the loss of the Jewish community in the society. Everything about the architecture is to make you think. There is an Hall of Axis, Escape/immigration, and of Holocaust. The floors and ceilings are at strange angles that make you unsure of your footing but the one section called "fallen leaves", there heavy metal faces that lay on the floor that you walk across making very un-human noises with each step. It is here that it really "Gets you"....the sound, you have to balance yourself or you will fall, the starkness of it representing Jewish life in the Third Reich. There is also a 24 meter high (72 feet) empty space called the Holocaust Tower. It is unheated and lit only by natural light falling through a diagonal opening in the wall. This was a busy area and we waited until we were alone and went into the room. We were the only 2 people in the Holocaust Tower and it was quite a moving experience.

The museum continues upstairs with a very detailed 2,000 year history of Judaism in Germany.At the end of the war the photo's taken by our serviceman.......I was thankful there were not too many.....Before that they had letters that were written to the Jewish inhabitants ordering them out of their houses and demanding that they turn over their assets. It was great that most of the exhibits were in German and English, no need for a guide or audio guide. Many German school children with classes there. Overhall, a sobering and wonderful experience. 

It is hard to tell in the picture but the floors, walls and ceilings are all slanted at angles.

Falling leaves.............................................................................................