Day 9 Wed. June 1/11 Nuremberg

The weather could not have been more perfect for our visit to Nuremberg. This was an optional but included side tour that we could do rather than the city tour.  

It was dull and hazy but "Alexander" was not.  He was our guide and believe it or not he had such a passionate pride in his German heritage that he was able to honestly describe what happened in Nazi Germany and also make me feel an understanding and compassion I was not prepared for.  We went 
to the Museum of Documentation housed in the "Coliseum" style building that was never finished by Hitler.   Here we had an in-depth interactive tour of every aspect of the third Reich.  

One thing that amazed me is to learn how Germans are now dealing with this aspect of their past.  After the war,  tendencies may have been to "hide things and shove them under the carpet" according to Alexander.  But now all is on display and school children, military and police all go to the documentation centre to learn the details so that they can prevent it from happening again. Transparency.  The structures we saw here were not completed nor used entirely as intended during Hitler's reign, thank goodness, but they are being well used now and for much better purpose.

Alexander gave us some excellent analogies.  One that really struck me was about the facade of the coliseum.  On the outside it is a huge imperious granite facade.  But is not really all granite.  Underneath is plain old sandstone brick. Hitler wanted everything to be huge and imposing, hard and impressive. 

The propaganda rallies happened here at the Zeppelin Field.  The stadium had many huge towers that looked like they would hold snipers but were really washrooms for the huge crowds that were to assemble here.  Just like the granite facade this too was not real.  A wolf in sheep clothing.  

Now we hopped on the bus to go to the courthouse where the War Crimes Trials took place.  We sat in the audience seats and were told in detail what transpired.  It was a powerful image.  

  

 Maybe I am lazy but I can't begin to explain the background of Nuremberg and its role in Nazi Germany.  So here is a blurb from an online source.   

Nuremberg held great significance during the Nazi Germany era. Because of the city's relevance to the Holy Roman Empire and its position in the centre of Germany, the Nazi Party chose the city to be the site of huge Nazi Party conventions — the Nuremberg rallies. The rallies were held annually from 1927 to 1938 in Nuremberg. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 the Nuremberg rallies became huge Nazi propaganda events, a centre of Nazi ideals. The 1934 rally was filmed by Leni Riefenstahl, and made into a propaganda film called Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will). At the 1935 rally, Hitler specifically ordered the Reichstag to convene at Nuremberg to pass the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws which revoked German citizenship for all Jews. A number of premises were constructed solely for these assemblies, some of which were not finished. Today many examples of Nazi architecture can still be seen in the city. The city was also the home of the Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, the publisher of Der Stürmer.

During World War II, Nuremberg was the headquarters of Wehrkreis (military district) XIII, and an important site for military production, including aircraft, submarines, and tank engines. A subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp was located here. Extensive use was made of slave labour.^[6] The city was severely damaged in Allied strategic bombing from 1943–45. On January 2, 1945, the medieval city centre was systematically bombed by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces and about ninety percent of it was destroyed in only one hour, with 1,800 residents killed and roughly 100,000 displaced. In February 1945, additional attacks followed. In total, about 6,000 Nuremberg residents are estimated to have been killed in air raids. Despite this, the city was rebuilt after the war and was to some extent, restored to its pre-war appearance including the reconstruction of some of its medieval buildings.

These name tags on a railroad track fading into infinity are one of the most poignant images I have from this experience.  They represent the people who were brutally murdered.