The Holocaust Tower, Fight Reason to Love, and the Best View Ever

Ok, ok, I admit that I write in the first person even when its not "today" - I have been falling behind in my writing. The real today (1/19) though needs a comment as I write this. We have arrived at the Hotel Plaka (I think that is the spelling). Poking my head out of my bedroom window I had a view of the Acropolis. Upstairs, on the 7th floor (really the 8th) I had the best view ever. I plan on doing all my typing every night to this view. I will now return to my present tense of the past

1/17/10

Apparently going to bed early last night didn't help Will much, as I woke him five times during the night...walking to the bus I past the store Butler, a cooking store. I have seen it both in England, Germany and Greece (slight time slip). I really want to go in one sometime. The bus ride was painless, taking us close to the Jewish museum. This was an unexpected experience. When I first got in the exhibit I was actually really confused. I guess I was expecting the force and power of the concentration camp for some reasons. The first thing I was reading was about a successful family business. Didn't get the point. I actually got board and moved away from the family story. I ended up reading on a computer, mainly about stereotypes of Jews and where they came from but a little section on Albert Einstein. He is culturally Jewish but not religiously - despite this fact he was asked to be the first president of Israel. The rich money lending stereotype actually comes because the fact that Christians controlled many of the work guilds in Europe and refused entrance to the Jews. They turned to money lending because it was one of the few things they could do. Ironically, the Christians borrowed from the grudgingly because the economy needed money lending - also Christians weren't allowed to lend money for profit.

The building was interestingly designed. Hallways were slanted and a slight gradient. I was walking up this one hallway reading stories about objects, each attached to a single person. Eventually I ran into a toy figure, white made with carved wood. It belonged to a woman who owned the figure when she was younger. She was sent away to a concentration camp. She survived but was having a hard time. It was this figure, which she found again, that gave her strength to keep going. It is amazing how we can find something or someone in our lives that can hold great meaning and give us the power or inspiration to do something. What is crazy is that often these objects are nothing amazing, they are often commonplace objects. (sorry, lots my train of thought. We are playing "Bad Romance" and have a great view of the Acropolis) If we look at Mill and pleasure, the pleasure gained from high facilities is more worthwhile than ones based on lower, physical, facilities. An object that is so commonplace but brings such happiness and pleasure clearly must lean to the higher facilities, bringing the strongest of pleasures. Nietzsche argues that pleasure is all about sensations of power. You could argue two different sides about the toy figure. At first I was thinking that Nietzsche was completely wrong. These are commonplace objects. They are not objects of power such as a gun or gold. Looking up at the Parthenon, I realized that I was wrong. Not every object must be considered universally powerful to be filled with power to an individual. These objects of attachment can empower people far beyond anything we would normally consider empowering, bringing the greatest pleasure to the people who find them. That said, these types of items can also bring great sadness of horrible memories or painful thoughts of happier times. Not exactly empowering. The hope that these items can bring though is great.

After reading about the toy figure I actually went into the Holocaust tower alone. The tower was freezing. It was a triangular cement room with giant walls. There was a single slit at the top corner, shedding light down. A ladder was just out of reach. I could understand the connection to a concentration camp where you were so close to getting out and yet not. There were cracks and holes in the walls, hinting at the possible chance to get out but no real hope as you looked at the rest of the concrete. The door that I had entered in from was thick, heavy, and difficult to open. It gave the feeling of closing you in. I wasn't in the tower for a terribly long time, but I was starting to freeze: soul, mind and body. Voices and noise of the city was there, providing a surreal feeling of being locked away with no hope. Yet I suffered nothing. Nothing compared to the horrible conditions people - estranged from society - had to live through or died as a result of. I can't imagine the difficulty that these people went through.

Another empty room held what the architect called "voids." These huge empty spaces, like the tower, resonated the strongest feelings with me. One of them was huge and tall. On the ground lay 10,000 faces cut out of metal. The faces stood for the people who had to live and die with all the suffering.

Leaving the museum after two hours we went towards Checkpoint Charlie. It was interesting to see where the divide had been between Berlin. There was a great sandwich shop near there. Absolutely wonderful. I guess I am not really use to salami, or whatever it was, being in a sandwich with hardboiled egg, cheese, cucumber, lettuce and tomato slices. It was definitely a good experience. I also got some random doughnut thing. That tasted like peach, possibly apricot, and had an entire side dipped of chocolate.

We went to the Berlin wall as well. We actually saw where it used to be in the ground, as they filled it with bricks and the wall would swerve into the middle of the road. One wall. That is all it took to separate a whole city and political sphere. I pray we never divide our nation by our politics. Or have we already? Right next to the wall was the site of the Gestapo Headquarters. Destroyed, only a few remains from the structure exist below ground level. Today stands a museum, the Typography of Terror. There were a lot of stories about the Nazi's and the SS and how they came to power. I listened to a speech where one of the Nazi leaders, Heinrich Himmler, gave a speech on the elite SS's values: Only the dead enemy can't hurt you. Lead by example, both body and soul. Blind obedience with unconditional discipline. Comradeship not understood by others outside of the rank. Loyalty that will survive every difficulty and issue. Never dishonor your reputation, the reputation of the SS, or of your mother company. You can easily see how the Nazi's misused ethics. Roth talks about this and how it has destroyed the trust in the world. How can you trust ethics, which you thought were pure and good, when they can be used for horrible means? I guess we have to used ethics as a tool and must really consider how they are used. Really it is more of a question of when do our virtues become vices and knowing the fine line. For example, love can become controlling and abusive, loyalty can become blind obedience, and justice can become revenge. By being aware that our virtues and ethics can be swayed to misuse. That said, people in the SS should've realized that something was wrong when they were asked to have blind obedience. Being blind never leads anywhere when you must make decisions in war.

We eat dinner at the hotel restaurant, where we were suppose to get 10% off...but we forgot to tell them that we were staying at the hotel. I had stuffed guinea fowl. The stuffing was some sort of bacon, which sort of distracted from the chicken like bird. It was also served with a salad and some potatoes soaked in butter and then covered in cheese, which has been melted until it was crisp on the top. Surprising as it is, I was actually not a fan of these potatoes. They lacked the soft moistness that made other buttered potatoes delicious. The cheese didn't really add that much to the dish either.

Our entire group when out to a bar - the Beastro 2000. I ordered a glass of water. My mistake. I thought I ordered water. Instead I got a still water with a lemon. There went $3. The night was spent visiting, watching a football game, and chatting about life. My favorite subject was love. One person was talking about how it was pointless to start a relationship, or continue one, when they didn't know where the relationship would be going in the next few months or even year. We started getting into the discussion of what it means to be in a relationship. Or more accurately I was eavesdropping. I heard about baggage with relationships, being in different places within our lives, and in the words of Greg, a generation of people unwilling to let relationships flow - we must know where they are going and control them. After hearing lots of reasons why not to go for the relationship and the last comment I had to speak up. Our problem with relationships is that we don't want to take risks - risk with love, risk with our futures, and risk with time. We would rather spend our time in the security of not being in a relationship as we avoid conflict and emotional strife. We value stability, which is safe and allows for happiness. Kant talks about how reason decreases happiness. In this instance Kant is right, as our reason can drive us away from relationships. What we forget is that relationships in themselves are good. Kant talks about how the only thing that is good is good will, as good will is good in itself and is not a means to any end. We forget to bring good will to our relationships. We are selfish and just think about ourselves and the relationships as means to an end. What we need to understand is that relationships in themselves are meaningful. When it comes to relationships what we need to do is to stick through them. Too often we jump away from relationships because of signs that they may end some time in the distant future, instead of when they actually need to end. By sticking through relationships until the definite end date we get the most of them. Now I don't mean this in the selfish "get" way. By staying in a relationship you are forced to work through difficulties, hard times, and person flaws. You develop the ability to work through relationships after the whole honeymoon phase when you may be blinded by love. If you only have short relationships then you will never develop that skill. If you don't, when you find that person you really wish to be with for the rest of your life you may lose them just because of your inability to make the relationship work through thick or thin. Because of this workability factor, sticking with a relationship a long as possible is useful for your future and never a waste of time, even if the relationship does end in the future. If you don't have a solid reason to leave then it is pointless to do so. The excuse that you know you don't want to be in the same place later in life is flimsy at best - especially when you aren't at the peak of your relationships - lets say five, ten, or twenty years. Relationships never really stop growing. When we are only a year, or way less, into a relationship we don't know everything about the relationship that will never stop growing. A person may find that they are willing to make sacrifices for their partner (oh how p.c.) or the relationship later in the relationship - sacrifices that are unimaginable so early in a relationship. If we don't stick with relationships how will we know if they are worth sticking with in the end? You may find that a relationship you didn't think would last forever turns into something more amazing than you ever thought it could. The last part is baggage and personal flaws. We all have them. If you can figure out how to work with what you will always bring to a relationship then you will be able to go into any relationship and make them most of it by minimizing problems caused by the baggage and personal flaws. It also helps you to be ready to deal with other people's flaws or mini OCD moments.

I was offered some beer several times this night. I just told them my decision not to drink at all this trip. We all have our reasons for our actions. So do I.

Bed calls as it is 2 am and I only did a rough draft of this blog : )