History in your face

Until it started showing shows about dysfunctional families that sell their pride and privacy for money, I once loved to watch History Channel.

In school I was a science nerd. I love animals and once seriously considered pursuing a career in Marine Biology. That was until I realized the chance of working with Shamu was slim to none and I didn't want to study one shrimp for 10 years.  Second to science I always enjoyed history class and learning about other cultures. Being able to live abroad is AMAZING, and I am so very lucky to be able to do so comfortably and with the man I love.

Watching a show or reading about some of the darker times in history, i.e. Civil War, WWII, Bubonic Plague, is much different than actually seeing the places people died and suffered during those times.

A few days ago I had a moment, a moment and a realization that "holy crap, I'm in Germany and people were taken and killed in these towns not too long ago".

This past Saturday me and a couple of girl friends went to Neustadt, a small town 20 minutes by train from Hochspeyer (where I live). I was promised good coffee, shopping and cute scenery. What I did not expect was to see history in the middle of the street.

Stumbling Blocks: These are cobble stone sized memorials for people who were consigned by the Nazis to prisons, euthanasia facilities, sterilization clinics, concentration camps, and extermination camps. They are simply marked with the person's name, date of birth, date of deportation, and, if known, the date they died.

I had heard of the Stolpersteine (Stumbling Blocks) a while back and my memory was refreshed at the museum in Trier. There we saw a display of WWII and 3rd Reich memorabilia that included one of these blocks. People have different opinions about the blocks. Some say there are impersonal, some say we should not speak of that time, others think it's a good reminder that bad things happen and we should try to prevent them from happening again.

It was humbling seeing one in the street. This meant that to some variation in location, these two people, I'm assuming brother and sister, were taken from their home, their families and went through hell. Just because some people thought that one kind of person was better suited to live than others. Honestly it almost knocked me on my ass. I just stood there...

The lesson I took from this shopping trip: History is interesting, but never forget that it involved real people, with real lives that were lost and stolen. Therefore, live and enjoy the freedom you have. I know I take things for granted, we all do, but I like to remember how lucky I am.  I really am.