Jewish Memorial

I remembered seeing the Jewish memorial near the Brandenburg gate when our family previously visited Berlin. We never walked through it because it seemed so meaningless from the street.

As our group exited the bus, I still had similar impressions on my mind. How can these huge, gray blocks really mean anything? However, once Rachel and I started walking through the memorial, I realized how the memorial reflected the experiences of the prisoners of the Nazis.

As we walked into what seemed an endless landscape of stone, gray, lifeless boxes, I realized the blocks are very individualistic: different heights, different slants.....They all stood in lines- reminiscent of the Jews who stood in roll call lines in front of the barracks. Eventually, the blocks reminded me of crypts...representing death. Among all these individual crypts, there were two places where lovely, green trees were growing. Those trees

immediately struck me as LIFE among all the death...a reminder of those who suffered greatly, yet survived and even thrived.

Rachel and I started walking again, after our initial observations and became more aware of the unlevel ground leading into the taller blocks. We walked down among those crypts and, Rachel being the adventurer she is, wanted to run down the rows through the blocks. So, I held her bag and watched as she took off running down the long, narrow path where the blocks truly towered above her. Suddenly, without any sort of warning, Rachel disappeared from view. She had taken a left turn and was out of sight behind and among all those crypts. The reality of what seemed to be a meaningless

memorial hit me for a brief moment.....Each one of those empty, gray, individual boxes was a loved one....a parent, child, grandparent, girlfriend, fiance, brother, sister, co-worker, friend....and each one had disappeared from life as everyone knew it. Each one had become a number in the craziness of Nazi Germany....an object being treated like a machine everyday....each one was being missed and hoped for and prayed for....

Over time, members of the Nazi regime and their soldiers had become masterminds at emotional, mental, and physical torture. The effect on the psyche of individuals and within cultures of one person...or thousands...suddenly being deported, imprisoned, de-humanized...suddenly disappearing....must have been their key to gain control in a town, in a country, on a continent....and in the life of every person they touched.

I was grateful to know that I would and I did find Rachel momentarily...I cannot imagine life without her!