History trip to Berlin

Year 11 History students embarked on a hugely interesting trip to Berlin earlier this term. The group had the opportunity to visit a variety of historical locations including The Reichstag, the Hohenschönhausen Memorial (a former Stasi prison), the Olympic Stadium and Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. The purpose of the trip was to provide context to the modules the girls are studying as part of their GCSE History course. The following is a reflection on the experience from Year 11 History Leader, Grace P:

“The Berlin trip is undoubtedly one which will stay with me for a very long time, if not the rest of my life. As a group we managed to see so many sights and memorials in such a short space of time. It is impossible for me to name every single one and write my personal views and what I took from each of them; so I’ll just pick my personal favourites.

On the first day, we visited the public square of Bebelplatz. The square is home to Humboldt University and St. Hedwig’s Cathedral, both architecturally beautiful buildings. But, more importantly, in the very centre of the square lies a glass panel in the ground which looks down onto pure white and empty bookshelves. This memorial commemorates the events of the book burnings that were carried out by students and teachers who were indoctrinated by the Nazi regime. Authors whose books were burned were primarily those who did not fit the Aryan standards, or those who simply opposed the Nazi’s political views. Some of these authors were: Karl Marx, founder of communism, Bertolt Brecht, a well-known socialist and Thomas Mann, who wrote an allegory, ‘Mario and the Magician’, about the corruptness of dictatorship. As the years went on, authors such as Ernest Hemingway and Charles Dickens were also amongst those whose books were burnt.

To me, this memorial was particularly significant. As an avid reader, the thought of burning books is one that shocks me and provokes deeper thought. Not only was this a ceremony that included burning pieces of paper, it stands out in history as an extreme act of censorship and a demonstration of the control that Hitler and the Nazis had over Germany at that time. By doing this, the Nazis were burning thought, ideas, beliefs and systems. They were basically burning freedom of speech in front of the world’s eyes. As German poet Heinrich Heine stated ‘Where they burn books, they too in the end will burn people’.

I always thought that people were exaggerating when they said that the temperature falls by a few degrees when you enter a concentration camp. But I found out I was so very wrong when we visited Sachsenhausen. When we walked through the tall iron gates that had ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ or ‘Work sets you free’ engraved on the front, I believe that it was the emptiness and the quiet of it that silenced us all for a minute. We saw the spot where the gallows would have been situated and heard chilling stories of barbaric treatment that had occurred there. Yet, even though I walked through the barren and cold barracks and saw the furnaces of the death camp I still don’t believe that I fully comprehended the sheer scale of slaughter and injustice. I still don’t fully understand how this all could have happened in such recent history.

I truly believe that our trip to Sachsenhausen will stay with not only me, but all of us who visited. It’s one thing sitting in a classroom and learning from a textbook about historical events, but it’s another thing entirely to stand and see the very place where it all happened.”