Landmark College Berlin Studies Groups Under Nazi Rule
Beginning Week Two in Berlin
After a very full weekend, students have begun to study this week's topic: the experience of different groups under Nazi rule during WWII. For their major project due on Friday, students have been asked to concentrate on a particular group to focus on as they read from accounts and diaries from the war, and visit various sites. Some of the groups that students have picked so far include POW's, the Jewish, the Gestapo, the Mentally Ill/T4 Program, Homosexuals, and Jehovah Witnesses. On Monday afternoon, we visited the "Topography of Terror" museum, that opened in 2010 on the site of gestapo headquarters, and includes a vast indoor and outdoor survey of Berlin from 1933-1945 and beyond.
In our Classroom Getting Ready for the Week
The White Rose Resistance Group
I was really interested in learning more about The White Rose Group, which is a German Resistance group. The White Rose group was a group that spoke out against the Nazis. It was a student-run group led by a group of students and a professor at the University of Munich that began on June 27, 1942 and ended on February 18th, 1943. Two of the main members were siblings: Sophie and Hans Scholl. They got caught by the Gestapo on February 18 and got sentenced to death on February 22, and were actually murdered the same day they got charged. I think that they were really brave to do what they did-- if I was in their position I am not so sure I would have gone against major leaders orders, knowing I could die as a result. I am interested to see what the German Resistance Museum shows about this topic.
--Cassandra Reng
At the Topography of Terror
Note: Sorry about the quality of the picture
A Poster for the Carnival of Cultures that Brought Nearly a Million People into our Neighborhood this Weekend
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View of Parade from the Landmark College Faculty Apartment
Walking to Templehof Airfield over the Weekend
Templehof is one of the most unique parks; however it did not used to be a park--it was an active airport used by the Nazis and was the most used airport in Europe during the war. The Nazis turned it into Columbia-Haus prison and it turned into a concentration camp with nearly 10,000 prisoners, including. journalists, politicians, Jews and more. They also used the planes there to drop supplies off due to a blockade of Russia. Even refugees lived there. When we went there, we saw that there is a lot of history involved in this park that is still being used today. We saw old planes that the Nazis practiced fire drills on. The windows were burned out and rust was everywhere. The airport itsself was curved and very long, so the planes could go park right next to the gate almost like a taxi cab. It is not a typical park when you can walk on a run way. A person can rent bikes there, but if you go top speed 20 maybe a little more it could take you 20min or more to go all the way around. The park is very social, and so much history has formed there.
--Caroline Hubley
