Berlin - GERMANY! Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 on our Berlin adventure.

In contrast to the Christmas Day festivities in Australia, Germans refer to the 25th of December as 'Erster Feiertag,' translating to the 'first celebration day.' While gift-giving typically occurs on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day remains a significant time for families to come together and cherish well-deserved respite from work. Additionally, it presents an opportunity to capitalise on the public holiday by venturing out for the day.

Given our limited four-day window to spend with our lovely German family, we aimed to maximise our time by exploring destinations from our itinerary. With a shared interest in visiting a concentration camp, we embarked on a journey to Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg.

This was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners throughout World War II. The Sachsenhausen concentration camp was built in the summer of 1936 as a model and training camp. Of the more than 200,000 prisoners, tens of thousands died from hunger, disease, forced labor and mistreatment or became victims of systematic extermination actions by the SS.

The stark reality of the futility of war became unmistakably clear. Despite the profound somberness of the experience, we were grateful for the chance to visit a concentration camp. It was certainly a Christmas Day we will never forget. 

As a photographer, I've always been drawn to capturing and crafting images characterised by symmetry. Exploring the concentration camp was astounding; I observed an abundance of symmetry in the architecture of diverse structures and objects, resonating with absolute perfection. It felt like a revelation, recognising that this appreciation for symmetry runs deep in my veins.

No trip to Berlin is truly complete without witnessing the remnants of the Berlin Wall. It's yet another poignant chapter in Germany's extraordinary history. I recall my mother remarking that if my father were alive today, he would find it unbelievable that the wall came down. To him, it would have seemed like a fantasy.