Comments on: Berlin’s Palace of Tears

By: Rachel Heller

Rachel Heller — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 10:26:39 +0000

Thank you for the recommendations! I haven’t been to Leipzig or Halle yet, but I’ve been to Dresden. I went to one museum about the Cold War in Dresden but didn’t get much out of it because it was all in German. That’s why I never wrote about it. My husband (who knows German) found it quite interesting. I have visited the Stasi Museum and wrote about here: https://rachelsruminations.com/stasi-museum-berlin/.

By: Henry AT fotoeins

Henry AT fotoeins — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 04:04:52 +0000

Hi, Rachel.

May I recommend:

* Dresden, Halle, and Leipzig, to learn of the weeks, months, and years leading up to the “Friedliche Revolution” in 1989.

* back in Berlin, the Stasi Museum is an eye-opening view to the methods used by DDR state security on their own people.

By: Chris Butcher

Chris Butcher — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 18:19:54 +0000

Hi Rachel, I remember the events of ‘61 clearly from watching on tv. How Russian Tanks were drawn at checkpoints facing into West Berlin. Kennedy’s electric speech ‘’ Ich bin sin Berliner’’. The awful sight of newsreel footage showing footage of escapers being shot by their fellow countrymen. The dreadful betrayals by Stasi informants. But finally the overwhelming sense of joy when East Germans at last gained their hard won freedom. A lasting tribute to those brave souls paid the ultimate price.

By: Rachel Heller

Rachel Heller — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:08:57 +0000

In reply to Irene S. Levine. It is!

By: Irene S. Levine

Irene S. Levine — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 02:06:32 +0000

It was chilling to read about this museum; can’t imagine how stirring it must have been to visit.

By: Rachel Heller

Rachel Heller — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 21:52:58 +0000

In reply to Juergen | dare2go.com. Are you talking about the 'ghost stations'? Yes, they sound like some sort of flash of a different world that West Germans glimpsed as their trains sped by.

By: Juergen | dare2go.com

Juergen | dare2go.com — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 17:35:26 +0000

I didn’t know that the “Tränenpalast” (a nickname so typical of Berlin’s ‘dark humor’) is now open to the public as a museum. I would have visited it last time I was in Berlin in 2013/14. I still remember the eerie feeling passing on the subway below Friedrichstraße, the semi lit disused platform with barbed wire barricades, VoPos (the east German ‘Volkspolizei’) with semi-automatic weapons patrolling, then the brightly lit short section where transit trains would stop… Yes, the regular subway from the south of West Berlin to the North of the Allied sector used to pass under Friedrichstraße on each and every journey. I disliked the trip so much that I rather took the long way around on BVG buses.

By: Rachel Heller

Rachel Heller — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 07:52:35 +0000

In reply to Doreen Pendgracs. Never been there! I'm sure I'd find it interesting.

By: Rachel Heller

Rachel Heller — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 07:52:08 +0000

In reply to The GypsyNesters. Yes, there are lots of options to get a look at that period in Berlin. This one is just a short stop: maybe an hour to see it well.

By: Doreen Pendgracs

Doreen Pendgracs — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 01:41:39 +0000

Rachel, you must plan a trip to Winnipeg, Canada. You would love the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.