Berlin to Auschwitz

Berlin

I came in on the night train without expectations. I

had finished my classes a few days ago and needed a

break from rural Hungary so I headed to Vienna.

As I left a few days later, I thought to myself,

"Vienna is great but if Berlin were a woman, I would

ask her to marry me."

It is that kind of enchanting place that draws you in

to its allure. For a city of 3.5 million people, you

cannot even notice the traffic - the tram cars work

like magic. There are bars built under bridges with

an elegant touch. It's too small to be London or New

York, but it's the perfect city to be anonymous.

If Europe had a success story as the bookend of the

twentieth century, the chapter would begin in Berlin.

The new Bundestag in united Berlin towers over other

European capitals in symbolism and metaphor. The

unfinished metal football at Brandenburg Gate as a

showpiece for the World Cup was still being worked on.

In this great city where the giants of politics like

Willy Brandt, the former Mayor of the City, John F.

Kennedy and Ronald Reagan gave their historic speeches

which characterized an epoch, there is now a humbled

city which could stand alongside any capital of the

world as a truly international city. It is the center

of gravity for Central and Eastern Europe.

Amidst the bars and coffee shops, its museums and

galleries effortlessly dot the streetscape with ease.

There are numerous artists studios built in former

health facilities and public buildings helping to

rejuvenate neighbourhoods. There is the heavy

thumping of Turkish music as cars of immigrants and

guest workers drive by. Outside Humboldt University,

there are bicycles and tram cars and one can barely

hear the hum of traffic.

Were it not that the weight of the 20th century lays

on the shoulders of Berlin, it is in that very

resilience that makes it a post-modern paradise - it

has something for everyone. It has become as Benedict

Anderson would say, an 'imagined community' or as

Edward Said would say, 'an imagined geography.'

Berlin as a victim of history following the Second

World War has become a kind of de facto center of

nostalgia and stopover point for the world's exiles

-be they Turkish, Palestinian or Balkan.

The entire German nation has been rebuilt on a model

to avert the rise of right wing populism. It has

redeveloped its entire education and political system

as a safeguard against its Nazi past. Post-war German

thinkers such as Juergen Habermas were heavily

influenced by the collapse of German society and its

susceptibility to right wing nationalism. His

voluminous work on the public sphere and idea

formation will be read for decades to come.

I went to a party of German, American and Canadian

artists in the outskirts of town in a restored

building to celebrate "Christi Himmelfahrt," to

commemorate Christ's drive into heaven. Everyone

there from the erotic pop-up book artist to the

transplanted Canadians talked about how much they

loved the city and were trying to figure out how to

stay there longer. That cosmopolitan European touch

in urban planning and its unique place as one of the

world's capitals can't be found back in North America

unfortunately.

Auschwitz

After a few lazy days in Prague, I took the night

train to Krakow. Rolling in at twilight, I found

myself sandwiched in the crowd preparing to go see the

Pope in the local park. Being secular but a lover of

spectacle, I rolled my suitcase along and followed the

crowd.

The event had all the features of an arena rock

concert or a nationalist rally - vendors selling

perogies and kielbasa, line-ups at the port-o-potties,

lit candles, sing-a-longs, religious flags and

slogans.

Pope Benedict XVI made his way to a grey and rainy

Krakow where a crowd of 900,000 had gathered to greet

him. Some had travelled all night and others slept in

cars to get a sight of the pontiff. At six in the

morning, thousands were already making their way from

the streets of Krakow to the local park.

Here in Poland, the Catholic Church was seen as

instrumental in bringing down the former Communist

regime.

The bars had stopped serving liquor on Friday and were

not going to start again until

after midnight on Sunday.

Later in the day, Pope Benedict XVI visited the Nazi

death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. They were not

scheduled as part of his trip but were arranged on the

Pope's insistence. In his youth, the Pope had

unwillingly been a member of the Hitler Youth in

Germany.

The BBC quoted him as saying, "In a place like this,

words fail. In the end, there can only be a dread

silence - a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to

God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you

tolerate all this?"

"Our silence becomes in turn a plea for forgiveness

and reconciliation, a plea to the living God never to

let this happen again."

He lit a candle in memory of those who died at

Auschwitz and met with 32 survivors. Another 500

survivors attended the ceremony at Birkenau. The Pope

also visited a cell which had held Catholic Priest

Maximilian Kolbe who had offered to take the place of

a prisoner during the Second World War. More than a

million Jews, Poles, Roma, gays and Russians were

killed there.

He had warmed the hearts of the people on his trip by

speaking Polish and announcing that he was hoping to

speed up the sainthood of Pope John Paul II.

The Polish academic Piotr Sztompka has done some

groundbreaking work related to trauma and social

change and the importance of genuine gestures of

reconciliation to heal historic wounds. The Pope

undoubtedly repaired some relationships but opened up

other wounds on his visit. It was just another

chapter in a uniquely European story.

I visited Auschwitz the next day. It was depressing

and as close to hell on earth as you can get. It was

creepy and sadistic. The misuse of technology and

human designed systems in such a barbaric and

cold-blooded fashion was a grave failure of humankind.

The remnants of barbed wire and gas chambers is still

only decades old. Human beings have shown that

throughout history we grapple with our ability to be

civilized.

Historian Tony Judt's epic Post-War sets out the

thesis that we still live under the dark shadow of the

Second World War. Travelling and studying in this

part of Europe, I would have to say that he is totally

correct.

The journey was over - I took the night train to

Budapest, had my first smoke in months and dreamt of

the meaning of Berlin.

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