Paging Ilse Koch

Me (to a group of 13-year-olds): “Can anyone here define the term ‘concentration camp’?”

Kid: “It’s a place where they sent people to shrink their heads and make them into paperweights.”

Batting for both sides

I’m at Bebelplatz, discussing the 10th May bookburning of 1933.

Me: “…arguably the most responsible figure was not Adolf Hitler, but the Nazi ‘Minister of Culture and People’s Enlightenment’, Dr. Josef-”

Tourist #1: “STALIN!”

Tourist #2: “HITLER!”

These Colours Don’t Run

The German tricolour is flying from the Reichstag, as you might expect. Much to the bewilderment of one [Australian] tourist:

“Why is the Aboriginal flag on the parliament?!”

Every.single.day.

“Do you live in Berlin?”

Worse things have happened at sea

This one is for the tourist who was mortified that she accidentally threw her (empty) coffee cup into a clothing bank, thinking that it was a bin. I promised that once she read the blog, she would see that by comparison to some of the stuff which happens on a regular basis, that was really nothing. So – I hope you feel better!

No, but let’s talk about Ikea

I was stunned into silence on this one, before being inspired to make a tenuous link to Ingvar Kamprad:

Me: “…and the Goebbels children all had ‘H’ names: Helga, Hildegard, Helmut, and so on. It’s possible that this was a tribute to Hitler.”

Tourist: “So, does that have anything to do with H+M?”

The porter will be with you shortly

Two different stories about the public toilets at the Sachsenhausen memorial:

Tourist #1: “So, will these toilets be, like, authentic?”

Tourist #2: “I don’t know what all the fuss is about. These toilets are fine. They even had air-conditioning!”