After Checkpoint Charlie, we headed down the street to the Topography of Terror, a permanent exhibition set up on the grounds of the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS, the Reich Head Security Office. The exhibit was extremely informative, even if we had to do a lot of reading on our own. The displays detailed all of the terrible deeds carried out by the security arm of the Nazi Party, both inside Germany and in the territories occupied during the war.
I've chosen the picture for this entry for a very specific reason. It shows a man choosing not to 'heil' Hitler at a public gathering in the late 1930's. At the time, not saluting was an illegal act, and the man is taking an enormous risk to himself by going against the masses of people mindlessly following Der Führer. And for me, that's tremendously important. It's not a major act, like taking up armed resistance. But that's precisely why it's important. If more people chose to stand up and not support the regime, then they take away its power, and no level of intimidation or threats can get it back. The same goes for government in any part of the world. If enough people make their voices heard, they drown out the lies often told by governments. And that, my friends, is how it's supposed to be.