A couple weeks ago, my mom and I toured all over Berlin, Germany. We saw amazing art and shopped a lot, but mostly we learned about the history of Germany. There is so much to learn about Germany, and it’s incredible to have been at the site where so much happened. I had such a wonderful time while in Berlin; however, I was disappointed to see how disrespectful some people were being while visiting these sites.

At the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, there are large blocks of many sizes and different paths to walk through. The site is similar to a maze, where you get lost in it and have a hard time getting out because there are gates and multiple paths on a huge space of land. The memorial is up for interpretation, but to me, I saw it as each block resembling one of the Jews killed.

Each block being a different size showed that they were all different, but the one thing they had in common was being Jewish. While I was at the memorial, I was disgusted to see people stepping and standing on the blocks. This was a memorial for Jews who were MURDERED, and people were stepping on them. To me, this was massively disrespectful, and I was honestly embarrassed to be near these people.

Underneath the Memorial, there was an exhibit where each person held a remote and listened to a speaker. Each room had different videos, pictures, maps, and words related to the Holocaust. One of the rooms, called the Room of Names, showed a name on the wall while the person's story was explained. The room was (mostly) silent, besides the speaker. When I was in the Room of Names, I was shocked to see a group of people on their phones chatting and laughing while playing games. I found it inappropriate to be on a cell phone in the exhibit, as well as laughing in such a serious space.

The East Side Gallery, a memorial for freedom, is a long piece of the Berlin Wall, decorated and painted in different sections. Each section portrays a different picture/painting of something representing freedom to the artists. Many sections were vandalized, and I found one to be extremely disturbing. A person wrote about Donald Trump over a piece of artwork. Vandalism is never OK, especially at a place with such an important history. Seeing this really bothered me because the fact that it’s in English and is talking about my president makes it likely that this person is from America. This could give off that American tourists are disrespectful and ungrateful for their freedoms, and I don’t want to be associated with that.

The Jewish Museum was set up very strategically so that on the bottom floor one axis had information on the walls about exile in Berlin, and the other axis was all about the Holocaust. The top floor had an exhibit about Jerusalem. At the end of the Holocaust axis, there was a room with thousands of metal pieces shaped like faces on the ground. Each face represented one of the thousands of Jews who had died. People were walking through the piece and stepping on the faces. Although many were kids, there were adults as well, with full knowledge of what they were doing.This seemed absurd to me, being that those are representing real people, and they should not be walked all over like they once were.

One of the most important parts of my trip was going to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Although most of the camp had to be rebuilt since the war, it was set up to look the same and to give visitors a feel of what it was like to be there at the time. Being there was so surreal and so heartbreaking. Visiting a concentration camp is not supposed to be a fun activity. It’s a very sad experience but so important. In my tour group, there was one family in particular that stood out as not taking this experience as seriously as needed. During the tour, this family was smoking and throwing cigarettes on the ground. We were at a concentration camp, not a garbage dump. They also took pictures of each other smiling in the different rooms and areas we were shown. They took pictures constantly, which was not only distracting, but disturbing to see that they were smiling in the photos. Being at Sachsenhausen, I thought it disturbing to photograph most of it, especially the absolutely horrible stuff.

Getting to experience so many amazing and educational places in Berlin was truly life changing. We are lucky that people take the time to put together amazing places where we are able to learn about history and how the world came to be the way it is today. Reading about these events in a book does not compare to seeing them firsthand, and there’s always something more to be learned. When visiting important places such as these, remember to be respectful. It’s not your right to be able to experience these places, but a privilege.