A Jammed Elevator

Next we headed to the Internationaler Club for lunch with a top German official in the Culture and Communication office. This club was “Member’s Only” and we had to trade our passports for an ID badge. We even got to ride this old elevator to the top floor. This elevator though was a bit different because it was like a belt system in that you jumped on without it stopping. It was an open front elevator that never stopped, you just jumped in. I guess these were popular in the past in Germany. So, Sarah (a teacher from California) and I timed our jumps and hopped in. Everything was fine until a person from our group (I will not name names!) hit the stop button at the entrance out of confusion. So, a buzzer went off and the elevator stopped midfloor. We were stuck! We could see the floor above us, and the floor below us, but we didn’t know if we should jump or not, for fear the it might start up right as we were jumping. Finally, after about 15 minutes and much debate I jumped down and then Sarah did as well. Well, it was quite a story to be told later by all involved. The Germans were just as stunned I think by the stopped elevator, and some even thought the smoke alarm was going off! Nothing like some American tourists to mess up an afternoon! You can see me below by the elevator right where I jumped down.

After a very ritzy lunch we headed out to the concentration camp that was situated just outside of Berlin. We rode 30 minutes to get to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and amazingly enough it would have been closed on this day, except that they kept it open for us. So, we watched a video about the camp and then toured it at our leisure with the audio tours. This camp was one of the first concentration camps, and was the headquarters for all of the other camps. It was used for Jews, Russian POWs, and any other group that the Nazis hated or feared. Hundreds of thousands were brought here, and thousands and thousands died here from murder or starvation or just the rough treatment. It was a grim reminder of the past history of the 1930s and 1940s. I have a picture below showing the main gate from the inside of the compound.

After the visit to the concentration camp we drove back to the hotel and changed for a pizza dinner and to watch the big soccer match between Germany and Austria. The European Cup is going on right now and all of Europe is following it with great interest. Since Germany played tonight in a very big game for them, we had to be a part of it. So we watched the game and saw Germany win 1-0. Then, several of us stayed out later looking for partying Germans (and didn’t find any) and just got back to the hotel.