It was an unusually cold day for Berlin in June. The year was 2014. The girl walked north from Potsdamer Platz towards Shonëberger Straße, passing a small piece of The Wall that was left standing, ironically juxtaposed against the high-rising Kolhoff Tower immediately behind it. The wall was crumbling and popping with political graffiti. Behind it, the tower was made almost entirely of glass, looking futuristic as it loomed atop the city skyline. This kind of contrast was not unusual in Berlin. In fact, the entire city seemed a blend of past and present that was hard to comb out in the bustle of a rush hour workday more than a half-century after the War. Berlin was a collection; a city reshaped and modernized built directly over the ruins of
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Back in school, he recalls experimenting with street art in response to the Vietnam War. “I belong to the ’68 generation,” he proclaims. “I didn’t experience the atrocities myself. So who should do it?” Demnig felt the collective responsibility burning up his post-war country. Inspired by the words of the Talmud, “A man is not forgotten until his name is forgotten,” he channeled this anxiety into the creation of a public, permanent art project that would forever commemorate victims of the …show more content…
It must have been a horrible scene to witness. Mother and fathers torn apart from their children, spouses separated after years of marriage. Jenny was fit for work, and survived in Auschwitz until she was liberated in 1945. Peter, though healthy and young, was not. He was exterminated immediately upon his arrival. He was fourteen years old.
Jenny did not know of her what had become of her husband or son until after the war. When the troops came in January of 1945, Jenny was likely starving, terrified, lost, and close to death, as were almost all of the prisoners who had survived until then. She went back to Brussels, hoping she might have a family to return to. She waited. Her family never came home.
She finally decided to make her way to the United States where she knew her family had fled before the war. But getting on that boat meant there was no returning. Getting on that boat meant she was sure Leon and Peter were gone. They wouldn’t find her in America. Jenny had waited. And perhaps Jenny didn’t want to remember. And then Jenny showed up on Michael’s doorstep in the middle of the night and began a new
Back in school, he recalls experimenting with street art in response to the Vietnam War. “I belong to the ’68 generation,” he proclaims. “I didn’t experience the atrocities myself. So who should do it?” Demnig felt the collective responsibility burning up his post-war country. Inspired by the words of the Talmud, “A man is not forgotten until his name is forgotten,” he channeled this anxiety into the creation of a public, permanent art project that would forever commemorate victims of the …show more content…
It must have been a horrible scene to witness. Mother and fathers torn apart from their children, spouses separated after years of marriage. Jenny was fit for work, and survived in Auschwitz until she was liberated in 1945. Peter, though healthy and young, was not. He was exterminated immediately upon his arrival. He was fourteen years old.
Jenny did not know of her what had become of her husband or son until after the war. When the troops came in January of 1945, Jenny was likely starving, terrified, lost, and close to death, as were almost all of the prisoners who had survived until then. She went back to Brussels, hoping she might have a family to return to. She waited. Her family never came home.
She finally decided to make her way to the United States where she knew her family had fled before the war. But getting on that boat meant there was no returning. Getting on that boat meant she was sure Leon and Peter were gone. They wouldn’t find her in America. Jenny had waited. And perhaps Jenny didn’t want to remember. And then Jenny showed up on Michael’s doorstep in the middle of the night and began a new