EMILY: Thoughts on a Jewish cemetery

Perhaps what stirred me the most, throughout the duration of the trip thus far, was the old Jewish quarter of Berlin.  The reconstructed synagogue and the cemetery seemed as though they rippled with what was, as well as what is.  They radiated a history that is stronger than anything in the United States, and yet, by default, part of it.

Maybe it's because my family has deep Jewish roots, though I don't call myself Jewish and was never raised as such, or maybe it was because history has a way of digging its talons into me, but either way I felt that if I closed my eyes I might just hear the silent sobbing of family members or the shattering glass during Krystallnacht-- The night of broken glass.  And for that very reason I didn't close my eyes, didn't succumb to the pull of history around me.  I merely observed, soaking it in without becoming apart of it.

While the synagogue reflected gold and intricate designs and a 'look at me' attitude, the cemetery maintained a modest air, hiding itself from prying eyes.  The yarmulkes provided for male visitors, be they Jewish or not, and the well maintained gravesites all highlighted the mourning which permeated the area.  Even the single tombstone, for a certain Herr Mendelsohn, cracked and withering, had a sort of resigned grace.  And the stones placed on its top, to show respect, seemed to breathe a collective sigh, as if to say, "Thank you.  You remembered."  In perfect juxtaposition the two structures, the temple and the graveyard, brought their own personal histories, and the histories of thousands of people, full circle.

Those two places, seemingly inconspicuous in the whole scheme of things, in the whole scheme of Berlin and the remnants of WWII, left such a lasting impression on me that I don't think I will be able to forget them for a very long time to come.  And, while the other ruins--the Berlin Wall, the various bombed out churches and darkened stone--grasped and clawed their way into my understanding, they remained a mere shadow to the hypnotism of the old Jewish remnants.