Like you, we really liked Berlin - endlessly interesting in so many ways - we've been back and will be back again. Similarly, the Memorial left us a bit cold but the Museum was superb, the architecture as well as the displays and the story they told.
The banners showing the various laws that were passed, steadily excluding Jews from society also struck us powerfully. However they also made us think of Israel and how they have done just the same to Palestinians, excluding and marginalising them and ultimately treating them as subhuman, untermenschen. When an IDF general describes what has been happening as programs and even the head of Shin Bet described the behaviour of Israeli Jews supported by the army as terrorism, truly the 'sins of the fathers' have been revisited.
Yes, I imagine that we will go back too. I felt we barely scratched the surface of a city with much to offer. Do you mean 'pogroms' re the IDF quote, Robin? Personally, I tend to be wary of making comparisons between the Nazi treatment of the Jews and Israel's treatment of the Palestinians - in the same way that I reject attempts by the Israeli state to depict every act of Palestinian violence as some kind of extension of the Holocaust. The Nazi racial laws were aimed at stripping Jews of all civil and political rights - as a prelude to extermination. Israel's occupation laws - many of which stem from the British mandate - have a different purpose - the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians and the destruction of the Palestinian national project. That said, there are certainly Israelis who regard Palestinians as subhuman, and the events of October 7 has enabled this section of the Israeli population to give into their worst instincts.
Likewise, I'm wary of making those comparisons but the actions and statements of the Israeli government and it supporters have become too extreme to ignore. With Israeli 'settlements' on land stolen, usually violently from Palestinians, located right next to those disposed Palestinians. Worryingly parallel to the film Zone of Interest. The nature of Israeli media means that the wider population can pretend that all is well, not unlike the Russian population over Ukraine (more parallels there). The likes of +972, B'tselem and Haaretz do their courageous best to inform in the face of unremitting hostility. The extraordinary death toll of journalists in Gaza at the hands of Israelis tells its own story. Russia again.
Israelis have used the Holocaust as a kind of justification or defence for their actions over the decades, relying on the understandable sympathy and guilt of the West. As their actions have become steadily more extreme leading to the genocide we see today (and better people than I have used that term), that justification loses its meaning. Indeed it is an insult to the memory of the Holocaust.
The wider West needs to get over its squeamishness and confront Israel for what it has become - another rogue state whose actions are not only indefensible but will only need to yet more violence and wider conflict. The kind of pattern that you have of course written about.
What a vivid and disquieting portrait of Berlin. Thanks, Matt
It’s a great city. Enjoyed revisiting some parts of it in your article together with some bits that we ran out of time to include in our stay.
We really enjoyed a visit to the Komische Oper Berlin which regularly puts on works by Kurt Weil.
https://www.komische-oper-berlin.de
A visit for next time!
And the Statsopera is great too.
A disturbing and evocative account of modern Berlin. A great read.
Like you, we really liked Berlin - endlessly interesting in so many ways - we've been back and will be back again. Similarly, the Memorial left us a bit cold but the Museum was superb, the architecture as well as the displays and the story they told.
The banners showing the various laws that were passed, steadily excluding Jews from society also struck us powerfully. However they also made us think of Israel and how they have done just the same to Palestinians, excluding and marginalising them and ultimately treating them as subhuman, untermenschen. When an IDF general describes what has been happening as programs and even the head of Shin Bet described the behaviour of Israeli Jews supported by the army as terrorism, truly the 'sins of the fathers' have been revisited.
Yes, I imagine that we will go back too. I felt we barely scratched the surface of a city with much to offer. Do you mean 'pogroms' re the IDF quote, Robin? Personally, I tend to be wary of making comparisons between the Nazi treatment of the Jews and Israel's treatment of the Palestinians - in the same way that I reject attempts by the Israeli state to depict every act of Palestinian violence as some kind of extension of the Holocaust. The Nazi racial laws were aimed at stripping Jews of all civil and political rights - as a prelude to extermination. Israel's occupation laws - many of which stem from the British mandate - have a different purpose - the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians and the destruction of the Palestinian national project. That said, there are certainly Israelis who regard Palestinians as subhuman, and the events of October 7 has enabled this section of the Israeli population to give into their worst instincts.
Of course pogroms - dreaded spell checker.
Likewise, I'm wary of making those comparisons but the actions and statements of the Israeli government and it supporters have become too extreme to ignore. With Israeli 'settlements' on land stolen, usually violently from Palestinians, located right next to those disposed Palestinians. Worryingly parallel to the film Zone of Interest. The nature of Israeli media means that the wider population can pretend that all is well, not unlike the Russian population over Ukraine (more parallels there). The likes of +972, B'tselem and Haaretz do their courageous best to inform in the face of unremitting hostility. The extraordinary death toll of journalists in Gaza at the hands of Israelis tells its own story. Russia again.
Israelis have used the Holocaust as a kind of justification or defence for their actions over the decades, relying on the understandable sympathy and guilt of the West. As their actions have become steadily more extreme leading to the genocide we see today (and better people than I have used that term), that justification loses its meaning. Indeed it is an insult to the memory of the Holocaust.
The wider West needs to get over its squeamishness and confront Israel for what it has become - another rogue state whose actions are not only indefensible but will only need to yet more violence and wider conflict. The kind of pattern that you have of course written about.
All true Robin.
And they keep digging: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/18/the-guardian-view-on-israels-booby-trap-war-and-unacceptable?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
There is little difference between ‘terrorists’ and states that deliberately use terror. The latter of course breeds the former.