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He who's name shall not be said...
In Berlin we did the hop on hop off tour and throughout the tour we noticed no one was talking about WWII and The Nazi Party.. I mean they were fine with pointing out damage done to buildings in WWII and they had no problem with the gory details of the Wall, giving us full details of the 'death strip' of the Wall. One guide did mention an underground bunker system used by 'government officials' that you can still tour. She managed to come up with four other words for Hitler before finally almost whispering his name. This was promptly followed up with her advising against us going to see it as we wanted to have a 'nice vacation'.
We managed to find a walking tour that actually focussed on the rise and fall of the Third Reich. Inside Tours Berlin, HIGHLY recommend it! It's 12€ and a 4 hour walk and they do a classic one and a Cold War one too.
Finally some history! This tour was incredible. We walked over the famous bridge that the Soviets finally took to overtake Berlin. We stood outside the Reichstag and discussed how Hitler (legally) came into power and those key moments / decision that changed the course of history. We walked to the sight where the brave men who attempted to kill Hilter and put in place the Valkerie resistance plan were discovered and shot.
The sight is still an Army building and each year the new soldiers are sworn in in the same square and the same date. An oath is taken to never follow an order that goes against basic human morales and ethics.
We saw buildings riddled with bullet holes, and walked through various memorials for those groups of people lost in the holocaust. We walked to head government offices and learned about the roles of Gobbles and Goering and Himmler.
We finished the tour at the location that was the Chancellor's palace and the attached bunker where Hitler killed himself... This is now a parking lot and an apartment building... A speed limit sign marks roughly where Hitler died.
It's interesting that we drove past many of these buildings on the hop on hop off and nothing was mentioned. I mean I get this country and city really couldn't catch a break for almost 80 years. WWI,government collapse, economic turmoil, hyper inflation (people were paid 2x per day as the money in the AM would be worthless by night) Hitler and the Nazi, they were bombed in WWII, and then the Berlin Wall...
Our tour guide addressed this, he was from Australia and wondered the same thing. So in general the older generation, people who lived in the decade or so after the war ended don't want to talk a lot about it. They feel guilt although they were not directly involved. The younger generation more less embraced the history and focuses on making it right and learning from it and they don't feel guilt. People will take the attitude 'how long do we HaVE to remember?' Well it seems like they just started..All the memorials and a lot of the markings discussion and preservation of these historical places (there is now a small info sign with a map of the old bunker system at Hitler bunker) only started to happen in the mid 90's.
Such an amazing city and the history incredible.
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