Spring Break in Berlin (part 4)

On my last full day in Berlin I did a few exciting things.

First, a large group of us took the S-bahn all the way out to it's last stop outside of Berlin. What were we doing there you may ask? We were headed to Sachsenhausen; a concentration camp of WWII's Nazi Germany.

Walking through those gates, knowing what had gone on inside their boundaries, was certainly an experience. While an incredibly interesting site this was also a rather upsetting one. Once we were all there we were allowed to walk about on our own and take everything in at our own pace. 

The first place I had walked into at the camp was the Infirmary Barracks. There wasn't much left inside the rooms beyond the pictures and information that was provided. It was all so eerie because, even though most of the equipment was gone, you still kind of knew what had gone on there. Everyone has been taught about the Holocaust to at least some extent in school, so it's probably not hard to imagine on your own what type of stuff had gone on in these barracks. 

My next stop was even more upsetting than that had been...the Pathology Building and Cellar Mortuary. It was here that all of the autopsies were performed on the prisoners who had died in the camp. At first it wasn't so bad. Just like the other buildings the rooms were pretty bare for the most part. It wasn't until I went to the basement that things got upsetting. 

There were rooms that looked as it they had been mostly untouched since they had been in operation. The tile and concrete tables where autopsies had been performed on the victims of the camp were still in place. The cabinets that held all of the tools were still on the walls; everything was just so real at that moment that it was too much. 

After that I saw many other things in the camp including the prisoner barracks. I'm sure many, if not all of us, have seen a movie about the Holocaust sometime in our lives right? Imagine back to that movie; the Hollywood provided images of the tightly packed, ill equipped barracks that housed the inmates. Got that picture? It's most likely not far off from what I saw.

 Many of these barracks had been torn down, leaving the camp looking much more open then it had during the Holocaust. All that was left were metal frames of where the barracks would have been. All of which were placed very close together.

After spending a few hours walking around in the camp, a few friends and I went to grab a late lunch before catching the S-bahn back to Berlin. We all then went back to museum island where we all split up to do our own thing.

I went to yet another museum. (Are you really surprised anymore?) The museum I chose to visit was the Pergamon. This museum is a bit different from most museums. Mainly because instead of having tons of rooms filled with artifacts and descriptions, the Pergamon took actual architectural structures from ancient times and displayed them as well as recreate similar structures as part of the room itself. I know that probably was not a very good explanation so hopefully these pictures will help a little.

 This was the first room you came to inside the museum.

 This was an entire wall of the second room that led to the third room. Over 60% of this recreated gateway is made up of actual fragments of the gate it is mimicking!!

 One of the two mosaics covering 90% of two of the walls in one of the rooms.

Did those help? I hope so. Along with this unique feature, the museum did have a great collection of artifacts from ancient Rome, Eygypt, and Middle East. It was over all a great museum and well worth going to.

After that I made it just in time to meet up with my friend Carol in front of the Berliner Dom so that we could catch the U-bahn to the Berlin Opera House. That's right ladies and gentlemen...I went to go see an opera in Berlin!!! And not just any opera either. I just so happened to be lucky enough to be in Berlin while my favorite opera, Georges Bizet's Carmen, was playing!!

Here is the view from our seats!

It was absolutely fantastic! The sets were amazing, and the cast was phenomenal! The whole company was amazing and did a great job. I loved every minute of it.

And then Carol and I made our way back to the U-bahn station to take the train back to our hotel and we called it a night. 

The next morning we all woke up bright and early to make our was back to the airport and say goodbye to lovely Berlin. While I miss Berlin so much, I am glad to be back in Ireland.