This March break, 11 students and two faculty members are traveling to Berlin, Prague, and Krakow to explore the idea of monuments and memorials and their role in public memory, and learn more about the Holocaust and how Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland responded in the late 20th century and early 21st century to the study of Holocaust memory, public art, and their fusion in contemporary life. Please enjoy the blog post below from Olivia ’28 and Henry ’26 where Olivia’28 shares about their visit to the Wannsee House which exposed the chilling decisions behind the Holocaust and Henry shares about the groups trip to the Jewish Museum which offered a powerful look at history and Jewish resilience.
Today we visited the Wannsee House. The luxury villa was first built in 1915, then turned into a guest house in 1941. However, a year later, it became the infamous site where the Wannsee Conference was held. There, fifteen Nazi and SS representatives gathered over lunch to discuss and coordinate the murder of Jews in Europe. It was the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” they called it, as if the Jews were problems, not people. Of the fifteen leaders, a grand total of five were tried and convicted. Four were not charged at all, while six died before World War Two concluded in 1945. What struck me was the description of Friedrick Wilhelm Kritzinger. He was not only unconvicted, but also the only one of the fifteen to portray remorse about the anti-Jew conference.
In addition, of the five Nazi and SS representatives put on trial, only two of their legal proceedings focused on their participation at the conference. This shocked me to my core. I could not comprehend how, after fighting a world war to reclaim the rights of Jews, the perpetrators who persecuted them were not punished for their wrongdoings. It angered me to learn that the crimes of most of the fifteen leaders were condoned.
After wandering through the museum for a while more, Mr. Leistler brought me to a description that stated nine of the fifteen leaders at the conference were qualified lawyers, and over half held a doctorate degree. I was horrified that smart, well-educated people would willingly gather to discuss the murder of innocent people.
Later that morning, Aelahni, Sophie, and I stepped away from the mansion feeling overwhelmed. We walked around to the back of the house where the windows and balconies overlooked Lake Wannsee. The weather was sunny, and we talked as we headed over to the edge of the lake. It was crazy to me that such a dark decision was made on such a peaceful and serene landscape.
I tossed pebbles into the lake and watched the water cause ripples. It reminded me that every action has a consequence. There is a cause, and an effect. From the Wannsee conference, came the extermination camps and gas chambers. 2.6 million Jews were murdered from its poisonous gas. It was there, at that very house where history was made. It was there that 15 leaders orchestrated the mass murder of millions of Jews. – Olivia ’28
So far on the trip, we have experienced many fun and moving sights, and today, we continued that trend by going to the Jewish Museum in Berlin. The Jewish Museum is so very unique and has so many exhibits that open your mind to ideas and questions about the Holocaust that one perhaps had never thought of before this. In this Museum, Mr. Leistler told us that we “were going to get lost” within the museum. Upon hearing this, I did not think that it was going to actually happen, but rather it would just confuse us somewhat. However, we did get lost. With the winding and odd shaped halls and the seemingly endless staircase with multiple floors of knowledge ready to be unlocked, it then became hard to not get lost in. There were many great exhibits at the Museum, however my favorite was the Jewish Hall of Fame exhibit, in which it depicted different drawings and images of influential and important Jewish people on the wall in a certain area of the Museum. This exhibit did a great job at touching upon the emotional side of the watcher, as when you show some Jewish people such as Jesus, Albert Einstein, or even Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it makes you wonder how someone could ever show pure hatred towards another just based on their religion alone. This Museum was amazing, and we had so much fun and learned so much! – Henry ’26
