(Friday, Sept. 11) A TV in the breakfast room of our hotel was showing film clips of the destruction of the World Trade Center. At first we were perplexed, but then realized that it was the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the U.S.
Later in the morning we were reminded of another, far greater attack on humankind when we toured Berlin’s Jewish Museum. The museum’s collection was originally housed in a section of a 19th century Baroque building that was known as the Berlin Museum. Years later, American architect Daniel Libeskind (who also designed the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin and who is working on the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site) created an adjacent zigzag shaped zinc-walled modern building with three axe. Exile leads to a garden with a tilted floor and 49 close-set columns reaching up to the sky, intended to disorient the visitor, just as the Jewish diaspora from Germany confused the Jews that left the country for South America, other European countries, the Orient, and the U.S. Holocaust, fittingly enough, dead ends in an eerie, concrete tower lit by a small slit window, where one can hear the sounds of the outside world, but without hope of escape. Continuity represents those Jews who survived the war. Personal effects, a sewing machine from a tailor’s shop, family photos, and letters to and from relatives and friends, all collected from both those Jews who lived through the war and those who were murdered by the Nazis, are no display.
The most striking feature of the museum is the Memory Void at the base of another narrow tower. When walked over, the 10,000 iron faces (called “Fallen Leaves” by the artist who created them), with holes for eyes and grimacing mouths, looking like so many unhappy Halloween pumpkins littering the floor of the tower, created a clanking sound, like prison doors slamming shut, or the wheels of a train hauling Jews off to concentration and extermination camps.
The permanent collection of the museum traces the history of Jews, particularly those living in Germany, over the centuries. The exhibits and accompanying audio tour were very well done, but it would take a month of Sabbaths to see them all. In the midst of this part of collection is a decorated Christmas tree. In the light 19th and early 20th centuries, some German Jews began to celebrate the Christmas holiday as well as Hanukah, since both were festivals of families and lights, and a way for them to show that they were part of the greater German society.
