October 11 - Nuremburg

October 11 – Sunday

A powerful if depressing day as we went back in history to WW II.  Our first stop on a sunny day was to look over a lovely lake (which is the hole where a huge stadium was to have been built) to the unfinished congress building which Hitler planned to be bigger than the colosseum.  It was never completed, but it would have been a grand statement.

Nuremburg is a lovely town, and I kept thinking that if the damn Germans hadn’t kicked us out,it would have been a lovely place to grow up.  The cities with their traditional buildings are lovely, the Jugenstiel facades are charming, and Germany now is a picture of success.  But it always gnaws at me that this very civilized country could be turned to animals in a very short period of time.

Our next stop was the courtroom of the Nuremburg trials.  Our guide, Stephen belongs to a group that give tours to children and tour groups like ourselves on the grim history of WW II. He couldn’t be more than 35 and is fervent in his descriptions of the Nazi horrors.  For a long time the citizens wanted to tear everything down that had to do with that period, but now with hindsight, and most participants dead, they have chosen to preserve some significant buildings as lessons to be taught.

The courthouse continues to be just that.  The only changes to the room were the removal of the translators corner which was glassed in, and a few rows of seats used by those in attendance. But otherwise to look at a picture of 1945 and 2015, there is little difference.  Quite chilling.

From there we went to a  portion of the unfinished Congress Hall known as the Documentation Center where the Nazis kept all their records.  It has a new addition attached to it, and provides a powerful exhibit of the history from 1930 – 1948 called Fascination and Terror.  Each room has video, illustrations, objects, and documents which show the hideous history year by year.  There was a hand-held device which allowed people to listen to detailed history on every object on display.  I could have stayed for hours.  We were told that were we to listen to each anecdote we would be there about six hours, at a minimum.  We had 45 minutes. Were I to come back to Nuremburg, I  would definitely go back here.

Now thoroughly depressed on a sunny day we raced back to our ship.  The Danube River is losing water by centimeters every day, so while our next stop was to be Regensburg, the captain decided to go past Regensburg to a small town of Bach, which was south of there.  It would put us further on our way south.  And in the morning they would get us up early and bus us back to Regensburg for a full day as planned, while the empty boat raced on to Passaul where we would meet it at the end of our Regensburg adventure.

So for the balance of the day we raced down the Main-Danube Canal, a man-made masterpiece that connects these two main rivers and allows for a complete passage from Amsterdam straight to Vienna and onward.  

To fill our time in the afternoon we had two great lectures: the first on Germany from 1945- 1990 given by a very witty, well-spoken political scientist.  After his lecture, I asked him what books in English told this story as succinctly, and he said he knew of only one:  Fritz Stern, The Five Germanys I have known.  Which happens to be the book I loved and made my book of the year about five years ago.  He also recommended two movies: Lives of Others about the Stasi in East Germany and Good Bye Lenin.  Both of which I have seen.

Our next lecture was on the building of the Main-Danube Canal with full descriptions of how the lock system works, the politics behind building it and its economic ramifications.  Very interesting.

Then cocktails and dinner and bed.  

A very full day.