This morning, I woke up at 5:30am and spent the next couple of hours working on my laptop in the common room.
At about 8AM I started walking toward Brandenburg Gate where I would be meeting the tour to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. The tour consisted of taking a one hour subway from Brandenburg Gate to the end of the Oranienburg line. From there, we walked about 20 minutes through the middle of the town until reaching the gates of the concentration camp. On the way, I met Farhad Khan (a graduate student from Montreal), Fernanda and Brother (18 and 20 year old siblings from Brazil).
The tour guide was very thorough, concise, and informative. Here are some thoughts that arose during the tour:

• Humans are capable of twisting reality and performing mental gymnastics to justify gruesomely killing over 10 million innocent people. Use that perspective to not be shocked when someone wrongs you and not to underestimate the need to protect yourself and not leave anything up to chance
• Social proof is much stronger than I originally thought. People living in a populated city endured six years of innocent people being tortured, murdered, and starved within daily view of their homes. This is similar to the experiment where bystanders who thought other people were also witnessing a crime, were less likely to report it
• Part of the reason why Jewish identity is generally strong may be due to the persecution we’ve endured. The tour today left me with a stronger Jewish identity and pride than I’ve had in a while.
• The tour guide suggested that the refugee crisis during ww2 (when other countries should have accepted Jews but didn’t) is comparable to the Syrian refugee crisis today. However it isn’t because:
  • Syrian refugees pose a danger to the security (Islamic extremism). Jews didn’t pose a danger
  • Syrian refugees aren’t being murdered by the millions by a genocidal regime. Not comparable
  • Muslim countries should be stepping in to take refugees. Not western countries with extremely different values and lifestyles
  • The writing is on the wall. Muslim Imams have clearly stated their intention of taking over Europe and it seems like they are on the path to success. It’s simple math that if Europe continues accepting refugees, Europe will be an extension of the Middle East.

On the way back from Sachsenhausen, I asked the tour guide for a recommendation for how to spend the afternoon. He suggested I visit Schlachtensee, a peaceful lake in the suburbs of Berlin. Although it was raining, I rode the train for 45 minutes to arrive at the lake, and worked at a local cafe for a couple of hours. Then, I walked across the street and walked the 7km loop trail around the lake in about an hour.