Cultural Immersion

During the spring of my junior year, I had the opportunity to travel abroad for my interim expedition. I traveled to Germany to explore and learn about the Holocaust while immersing myself in the local German culture and exploring the cities of Munich and Berlin. I spent seven days in Germany and learned a lot. We visited many Holocaust sites such as platform 17 (a railroad stop in Berlin where Jewish people were transported to Auschwitz), The Topography of Terror (a museum along the berlin wall), Dachau (a concentration camp), along with cultural and political sites including the Reichstag building, the Berliner Dom, the Brandenburg Gate, and Neuschwanstein Castle. One of my favorite things to do was tour the Reichstag building, which is where the German parliament meets and conducts business. It was interesting to see how a government in a different country runs and to hear about the difference in the political environment, especially in a place with such a dark and complicated relationship with the government. Visiting other cultural sites also enlightened me to how old the world around me is. In the United States it's outlandish to see buildings that are one hundred years old, but in Germany, and more broadly the eastern hemisphere, this is common and not surprising. Many of their significant monuments are older than the United States is. One thing that became apparent was the rubble of many monuments due to World War I and World War II, which made me realize how detrimental war is to not only human life, but history and culture. Visiting the sites that were memorials for the millions murdered during the Holocaust was chilling and enlightening at the same time. Although I had read and studied the Holocaust for many years, actually walking through the same buildings and across the train tracks of ostracized citizens who ended up being murdered was way more impactful and eye-opening for me. As a global citizen, these experiences have driven me to seek out peace and resolution among conflicting groups to ensure the safety and preservation of human life and historical landmarks. The most impactful and educating experience in Germany, I would say, was walking through Dachau and learning about the day-to-day life of surviving in a concentration camp and how the minorities were treated due to a difference in their outward appearance and/or beliefs. I hope to be able to travel more in the future and inform myself of the various histories of other nations to become a more informed global citizen.