Day 6 – A Sobering Step Back into the Time of the Third Reich.

Today was the day – my only day, I’m sorry to say – to see a bit of Berlin.

It’s a modern city … tall office buildings, restaurants, shops, clubs, hotels … almost all of contemporary design. Understandable, when you remember that 70% of this city had been reduced to rubble by April of 1945 and the end of World War II.

The infamous Third Reich of Nazi Germany was the focus of my day today as I joined a walking tour of some remaining sites from that era.

Our first stop was one of the few buildings to survive the massive bombings and, for me, it was the most moving moment of the day. The building includes the office used by Claus von Stauffenberg, the man who planted the bomb that almost killed Hitler in June of 1944. (You may remember the movie, Valkyrie, in which Tom Cruise played von Stauffenberg.)

The building is entered through this courtyard, which is where von Stauffenberg and several of his co-conspirators were summarily executed. By the way, Valkyrie was filmed here on location and museum staff were given final approval of the script to ensure accuracy.

We also visited the place where Hitler’s underground bunker was located and where he committed suicide. It is now — by design — a non-descript, very ordinary parking lot with no structure of any sort that could possibly be used by neo-Nazis as a shrine to glorify Hitler.

The tour ended at an empty city block that is — also by design — wall-to-wall gravel. This is where the infamous Gestapo headquarters was located. A museum on one corner of the parcel provides a history of the abuses — arrests, interrogations, torture and murders –- committed by the Nazis all over Europe as well as in Germany itself.

It was all pretty sobering, but it is heartening that the Germans themselves have confronted this part of their past. In fact, our guide noted that the public schools are required by law to provide detailed instruction about the Nazi era twice: once at the elementary level and again during high school.

And, just to end on a much lighter note, regular visitors here will know that I am a devoted follower of the Boston Red Sox. (Note my cap in the small photo.) When I arrived at the meeting place for the tour, I was startled to see that the tour guide was wearing a New York Yankee cap. I soon discovered, however, that he’s from Scotland, the cap was a gift, and the only thing he knows about baseball is that the Red Sox and Yankees are “true and mortal enemies”.

Tomorrow: the overnight train to Moscow.