Thursday, May 31, 2018

May 30th

Today we went to the wall museum. The museum was much different from either of the two we visited yesterday. Since there isn’t a lot to look at as far as artifacts go, the museum consisted mostly of videos and text. This gave it a much different feel. I learned a lot about the Berlin Wall and its effects on the German people. It surprised me how much of the museum was electronic. Even the paragraphs of text were, for the most part, displayed on screens. The museum was very interesting and informative about the history of Germany

After the museum, we went to the East Side Gallery, where the largest section of the Berlin wall still stands. One side of the wall is covered with beautifully done artwork. Each mural conveyed a very different message than the other, in very different styles. Walking along the wall was interesting. I tried to imagine what I would paint if I was given a spot on the wall. What message would I want to get across? Would I want it to be more interpretive or more upfront? I liked to try to imagine what exactly the artist of any given art piece was trying to say.




Art from the East side gallery.

After visiting the wall I decided to spend some time at the Holocaust Museum. The entire museum was eerie to say the very least. All of the rooms echoed the monument above. The first room showed the face of six of the victims of the Holocaust. It’s impossible to wrap your head around the fact that for each of the six people depicted, a million were killed. The next room showed 15 death notes from 15 more victims, including one from a 12-year-old girl written minutes before her death. The next was the room of families, which showed family pictures, and then a list of who survived. Next was the room of names which gave a short obituary for the victims of the Holocaust. Most of the deaths I heard about were unknown. I heard the phrase “they were never seen again” a lot, meaning they don’t know exactly what happened, which was upsetting. Lastly was a room that gave more insight into the actual concentration camps. This room had first-hand accounts from survivors which were the most upsetting part for me.

Heather Peterson
Class of 2021
Mechanical Engineering



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