Introduction
In days 6-10.5.2015 took place on our trip following the footsteps of the battle of Berlin and the total of nazi tyranny over the capital city of Germany. In terms of number of days and the surviving members of the trip was smaller than the Normandy 2014, but it's the taste and the amount of viewed attractions definitely detracted (in addition, in 4 people, we were able fairly quickly to address crisis situations of the type "I'm waiting for it there will be empty, so I took a picture of it and some dick I can fit in there ").
Way there...
From Hobitína, eh, what's táram, from Prague, we set off (some refreshed day at work) around five in the evening, and because Berlin is a stone's throw away and the rest of the finished monster-truck, we were for the sixth time in the Mouth at the gas station, favorite it stop most of my trips in that direction, and at half-past nine we have already circled around the exhibition, or better exhibiting, Berlíňanek. Although the hotel was basically in the center, a few minutes walk from most attractions of the type of Tiergarten, or the Brandenburg gate, marking label with no mention of the rich night life that is on the sidewalks, and in darkened ulících around the hotel is kept. Survived however, we us ... the little devil girl (and boys disguised as women) and in pairs we set out to investigate details of the accommodation and in particular parking. It worked out quite beautifully directly on the yard of the hotel, so a few minutes later, we left the bustle of the big city and zabublali with our monster in the backyard and urgently to the bed. Before the magic roundabout was another strategy meeting about the number of forces, which you short, but the evening journey, picked on my souputnících, for the first day should be by far the most exciting. As it seemed, no one couldn't resist it and the original program thus has undergone only small modifications due to the optimization of the route, but not what the content of that day. Ukonejšen views on the suffering of the Germans at Stalingrad, that on that day, apparently in commemoration of the approaching anniversary of the end of the war and the need to remind you that nazi Germany was the victim, not the aggressor, aired by the German N24, I fell into a coma.
Thursday 7. 5. 2015
So in the morning after a little sleep in, we agreed to change the route and the start of our study period is more than symbolically took place in the premises of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg, about 30 km northwest from the center of Berlin. Journey through Berlin took place despite the clouds of suicidal cyclists without much difficulty, and shortly after the scheduled arrival, then at 8:30, when the spaces open up, we arrived at the parking lot. Navigation along the way is sufficient, if you are in Germany for this purpose were not, just look for the white sign with the trojící crosses and the inscription "Lift". The concentration camps they have in the German abbreviation KZ, so it's certainly in search of help.
Admission to all state-run places associated with the second world war in Germany for free, so in any of the memorials at the concentration camps.
The camp Sachsenhausen was a place where she was held for a number of people in particular for their political views, but even many of those who are to companies controlled by the nazis weren't right for their sexual orientation or religious belief. The camp went through (and many have died here) the Czech universities, pozatýkaní in retaliation for a demonstration after the funeral of Jan Opletal, killed by the nazis in November 1939. the International day of students 17. November recalls just the events of that gloomy autumn of 1939. Among the other well-known prisoners of the KZ Sachsenhausen was also the Antonin Zapotocky, later to be our communist president. Inhospitable camp with the shape of the triangle is unmistakable and he had to supply the German capital labour and bricks and building material of the largest factories of this kind - the work of prisoners should help to reshape Berlin into the capital of the Third Reich - Germania. From this utopia, they were Germans, fortunately, soon escorted bombers of the RAF and the forces were needed elsewhere. Time in the camp arose a specialized workshop, in which the watchmaker repaired a watch of the extermination of the Jews, and where they also falsified banknotes (very vividly about this book was the Devil's workshop), in particular the pound. After the war the camp "borrowed" the Soviets to here imprisoned members Werwolfu or their political opponents. Several buildings have been preserved as a monument to the inhuman way the prisoners had to live, the rest of the buildings is preserved only in outlines on the ground. Around the perimeter of the camp remained intact wall and watchtowers, a gallows and the rest of the crematory furnaces in a place where there were executions of prisoners and where they are located mass graves. After about two hours of this gloomy place they left and went on the next trip.
Transfer to the airport There, where is the aviation museum, was enhanced by a roughly devítikilometrovou "štau" on the highway, that ended up exactly in the places where we're from motorway odbočovali, but neither of us could pick up the taste to the next cognition. The space of the former airport is surrounded by (and slowly consumed by the) settlement of family houses, so the zigzagging streets around schools, kindergartens and a number of houses in no way suggests, that a few meters away you will find amazing military museum, in which you spend with the taste of even a few hours. The airport, that the greatest glory achieved during the blockade of Berlin as one of the three airports, where the nonstop flow planes supplying West Berlin, is now in a low area, where they collected air and anti-air technique of the East and the West. We find here a mix of all sorts of aircraft serving in the FRG and the GDR, but also from the days of the Luftwaffe or of the first world war. Part of it is located in three covered hangars, the part is located on the open space at the entrance. Although the space has shrunk dramatically compared to 2006, when I, this airport was visited for the first time, the planes were withdrawn from the area of the runway, taxiways and the surrounding area closer to the hangars and the entrance, the idea that there we spend less time, was a misconception. After three hours, real sharp moving along the exhibits, and a few dead batteries in the camera, it was evident that another hour or two would make here with the taste to spend the daly, but it has a strict commander of the program, therefore, I, did not allow, it was time to kick it into all six liters of our engine and hit next.
On the other side of the water surface from There is located recreation area System - a name that will forever remain stained in the conference on the final solution of the jewish question. Right here, in a villa on the shores of lake Grosse System for the participation of a number of leading bigwigs of the nazi machinery of decided on the systematic destruction of Jews from all over occupied Europe. The original villa, again accessible free of charge, offers in the form of large-scale information boards journey into the history of hatred against the Jews in Germany, the steps of Germany in the second world war, executions and torture, to the concentration camps. Maintained is the room where the nazis gathered for the solution of the jewish question. After about an hour we're coming out on the air, the blooming of the rhododendrons and lilacs so hard contrast with the crap that we have in this handsome house on the shore of the lake with the boats they were confronted. Bleh !
In pozdícím the afternoon we go back to Berlin, over the fate of the other two points of the program is now in question. Weary, hladovi, we stop at a gas station and we're looking for "Italian" adapter on the gas hose, to finish fueling our means of transport. Joker-the salesman wouldn't come down and pulled us the whole box full of attachments, so it looked for a while that the rest of the evening we got taken care of, but the chauffeur did not disappoint and the first time he fished out the correct one. We had a pleasant view of the nearby burger king, which is the advancing rain had rendered a good place to solve hunger. And so it has happened. Hunger ceased, the rain stopped, and it was decided to continue in the original plan, i.e. to visit the nearby Olympic stadium, the nazi's velkostavbu, the nearby british military cemetery, and then the citadel in the System, instead of one of the last fights in Berlin.
The olympic stadium is definitely better to visit during the day, not with pozdícím evening, when elsewhere you encounter a closed door, but even so, a person clearly perceives the monumentality of the space and with a little imagination on the buildings once again appear red banners with swastikas, as back in 1936. The stadium has a number of car parks around the perimeter, but the best appears to be the parking lot at the towers, you can (in the opening time and for a fee) take the elevator and enjoy the view. Directly in front of this tower is a parking lot, so there is no problem with the car. But you can park and from the other side of the stadium and the whole complex of sports venues go through, certainly that you will spend a few hours of time, the complex is really large. Everything we see could, we saw, and we moved over to the nearby cemetery of the RAF.
That carefully modified british military cemetery will lie directly in Berlin, where the british soldiers directly fought, may be for someone surprising, but just the three known letters - the RAF, the british royal air force, to make this clear. The cemetery is the final resting place of nearly 3,600 airmen of the RAF and several hundred post-war of the dead from the ranks of the british occupying administration. Not for nothing is right on the welcome sign says that the loss of the RAF amounted to 44 % and the average age of the airmen of the fallen was 22 years old - after a short search we find the boy from Australia, who died 12.10.1944 at the age of 19 years. Another, which fell on Christmas of 1943, at the age of 20 years. The british, Australné, new zealanders, Poles... as it is in the british cemeteries of habit, carefully groomed cemetery, aligned rows of grave stones along with the setting sun certainly very powerful experience to honor those, who by night fought for our freedom in the glare of the searchlights, and in the overwhelming fire of the German air defense.
With chýlícím by nightfall we ran over to the nearby citadel in Špandavě (Spandau). The citadel was in the war center of the German research of chemical weapons, and when surrendered to the soviet hands, not the soldiers of the Red army no idea what lies before them and that those "civilians" who are giving up, are among the scientific leaders in the field... Many of them were after the clarification of the status of things taken to the Soviet union, but unlike many of their colleagues from other branches of the German (military) science refused to cooperate on post-war research for the Soviets. The nearby bridge has become a key transition for the civilians and the remains of the soldiers, who in the night of 1. 2. may try to fight your way from the center of Berlin towards the west, to the Americans, only to find that Berlin is tightly surrounded by soviet troops. Roughly hour walk along the brick walls špandavské citadel arouses astonishment just over the number of bricks that had to be on this impressive construction used, and the upcoming dark ends our first day in Berlin.
The last few intersections, the blink of a (very) high prostitutes (or, rather, a prostitute) and we are on the cosy courtyard of our hotel. I fall asleep while watching the documentary about general Patton, from his tenure in the mud of the trenches of the first world war to the dramatic days of winter battles in the Ardennes. About the German atrocities, Berlin, the end of the second world war, once again on the N24 I know nothing..