On Saturday I went into the large city of Hannover with my host family. We went and saw all of the history of the city, from the churches and cathedrals to the Rathaus, neu and altes. In the new town hall (there are pictures on Facebook), there is a small museum, with scale models of the city before, during, and after WWII. Hannover was completely decimated. They did however leave the town hall and the churches because the pilots could use them as landmarks to orient themselves while on bombing runs. So a lot of history is still there. While walking, My host mother points and says "Oh look, the President is walking towards us." I walked by President Wulff, we were within 2 feet of one another. I told her that that sort of thing never happened with President Obama and she didn't believe me. We ate lunch at a nice Café, and then went shopping. Outside one of the shops, H&M, Tom and I sat and ate eis while watching some breakdancing street performers. It was a great day!
Today I have gone to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp that was located a short distance from Celle. It was very historical, enlightening, overawing, and spooky. Most of the infrastructure was gone, burned down by the britisch. But seeing the number of people buried there was very overwhelming. Anne Frank had a special memorial that many, many people visit. It was covered in little keepsakes, poems, flowers, and rocks from people of the Jewish faith. It was a very enlightening experience, but a little bit depressing. I really do not think about world war II here when I am not face to face with evidence of it.
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