History Came Alive Today

When I last wrote/talked to you, we had some transportation issues. Well, those transportation issues fail to cease. On Friday, we had reservations with Enterprise Car Rental yes the same company as in America (Enterprise..."We'll pick you up!"). Sure enough, they picked us up to take us to the rental office. They ran out of compact cars, so they upgraded (for free) to the next class of cars. This would be a VW Passat instead of a VW Golf. In America, this would of been great, but in Germany, the roads are barely wide enough to handle two VW Golfs. Cars have to drive on the sidewalk to let other cars pass. So a larger car, only added to my concern at driving in Germany.

This is Jara's mom's garage for her car. It's TINY. Jara's mom can barely squeeze out of her car. Use Scott to get a perspective on the height.

But don't you worry...in the end we weren't able to rent a car. Little did we know, you had to have a 250 Euro deposit on top of the rental fee. We were unaware of this, and both Jara and I didn't have enough money in our accounts to afford this. So we left Enterprise empty handed. But we were able to make the most of it, and purchase a day pass on the subway/bus and toured other parts of Hannover. We took the subway out to EXPO Plaza, IKEA :), and the country side.

It's like we have never seen an IKEA before

Then on Saturday, Scott and I ventured by ourselves to Hannover's city center aka downtown. We did a little shopping, and found an amazing little kiosk that made my day. The name explains itself...

Scott took this picture for me. I was too embarrassed. Anyhow, they sell ice cream. They custom make Magnums (the ice cream bar), and any other ice cream you can imagine.

I was able to make it on the Autobahn today, though I wasn't the one driving. Jara's mom took us to Bergen-Belsen (the concentration camp). It is about an hour outside of Hannover. There was even a traffic jam on the Autobahn! Also, I didn't realize how much farmland there was in Germany. There was so much alongside the Autobahn.

The Autobahn

What I didn't realize or learn in school was that Bergen-Belsen was not only used as a concentration for Jews but as a POW camp for mostly Soviet soldiers.

The Bergen-Belsen Memorial consisted of an Exhibition, which was more like the history of the camp and the grounds that contained the camps. The Exhibition was full of first-hand video footage (very hard to watch), artifacts (buttons, uniforms, barbed wire, belt buckles, etc.), pictures, and information. I had goosebumps the whole time we were there. There was even a cafeteria there!! Who would eat after seeing this stuff?

The cold, bleak Exhibition

The grounds. There are no longer buildings just trees, flowers, memorials, tombstones, and mass graves.

A mass grave. (I didn't know until Jara's mom explained what it meant)

The British created these graves stones. If you can see...1,000 tote means 1,000 people are buried here. There were SO many of these here with different numbers. Over 52,000 Jews were killed here.

Scott and I looked in the books of names of those who resided at Bergen-Belsen. There were over 40 people with the last name of Franz. We watched some footage on a man named Christian Franz who was persecuted at Bergen-Belsen for being a gypsy.

Jara's mom and I bonded today. She hasn't spoke much English while we have been here, but she does know some. Today while walking on the grounds of Bergen-Belsen, she told me that her father's family had to flee to West Germany to escape the Nazis. Her mother's father was a Nazi soldier, and he refused to speak to about anything when he returned after the war.

Anne Frank and her family were moved from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen. Everyone in her family, except her father, Otto, was killed here.

Today is Sunday, which means tonight was family dinner. Jara's grandma and sister came over for a lovely meal of stuffed bell peppers. Then I started this blog, until I got distracted when Jara's friend, Jannis, came over. We played quite a few games of cards on the balcony. Their balcony is SO beautiful. It overlooks the park, and everything is so green and lush here. Plus, the temperature is ideal. It is just like San Diego's, but it rains a lot more here.

Three Things I Learned Today:

1. Germans, while driving on the Autobahn, put on their emergency flashers when braking for a traffic jam. (Probably because they drive so stinkin' fast!)

2. Anne Frank and her sister, Margaret, died at Bergen-Belsen.

3. Prostitutes in Germany stay in trailers off the side of the road. We witnessed a few today.