We finally got to the wall

Jubilant Berliners removed most of the Berlin Wall as soon as they could. Just before they finished the job, somebody realized that they should save a little bit as a historical artifact, and we finally got down to see it today. I didn’t realize how thin it is. It’s supported by plenty of steel inside, but now I understand how people broke through it so quickly once they realized they could get away with it.

On our way to the wall memorial, we spent a lot of time reading historical displays mounted along the sidewalks. I was familiar with most of what they presented, but my facts had gotten a little rusty over time. For Alla, the displays presented a lot of new information. The Soviets didn’t really feel the need to teach her much about it in school, or even to publicize it for her parents to discuss at home.

While I found the wall history interesting and entertaining, I found myself completely engrossed in the next historical display. On the site of the old SS headquarters, we spent about an hour walking down a historical timeline of the Nazi movement. I like to imagine that humanity is older and wiser now, and that nobody would fall for the kind of program Hitler conceived. But looking at the historical context and the language he used, I can understand how he won the hearts and minds of his followers. If you don’t stop to think about consequences, his ideas carried enough superficial appeal that a credulous populace could buy into them. He appealed to a group consciousness, offering the prospect of better lives for the segment of the population that considered themselves part of this group, and made it easy for most Germans to identify with the group.

I am familiar with other societies very conscious of a group identity, and I wonder to what extent such appeals might still work if presented in the right way and developed in a non-critical environment. It probably happens more than I like to imagine, and the exhibit makes me want to be very careful about what groups I choose to identify with. Best, I think, to identify with “humanity,” or “God’s creation.” The smaller the group, the bigger the risk of shutting out other people.