![\"PB070900\"](\"https:\/\/solarev.org\/eastwest2014\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/11\/PB070900.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHowever, the interesting part comes afterwards, as we gather to talk about our visit at the\u00a0Hohensch\u00f6nhausen prison. There is a comment made about the guide having been\u00a0 a bit disrespectful about those who suffered there, particulary in reference to a comment she made, but also by generally employing a certain distance in her presentation. Thus, a\u00a0point is made that there is no place for\u00a0distance when talking about traumatic events.<\/p>\n
I disagree with it in the beginning. I’ve appreciated the guide’s abbility to stir your curiosity and envolve you in the story without recurring to emotions. In this case I feel that leaving the real emotions to those who actually suffered is more decent and honest, than actually feeling that you\u00a0can share a bit of that trauma. Because truly speaking, you\u00a0can’t. But what I can do is learn more about it, through a good documentation. And that’s what the guide did; in a vividly way, she helped me understand a bit of this big story.<\/p>\n
But that was only my perspective. And I’ve slowly understood that just because the guide’s presentation style was right for me and my understanding framework, it didn’t mean that there was no place for dilemmas and debate.<\/p>\n
As the discussion went on about the right way\/ways to transmit such knowledge about past events , valuable questions arose. Why do we go to these memorial places in the first place?<\/strong> \u00a0Is it better to keep a distance when talking about emotion-ridden events, or is it actually ok to involve emotion?<\/strong> What if the\u00a0guide was an eyewitness, as it’s the case of some tour guides at the\u00a0Hohensch\u00f6nhausen prison, that \u00a0were actually\u00a0prisoners there. Is his\/her input more valuable? What do we search for in these memorial places?<\/p>\n And then a great point was made. Are we going to these places to feel that the Ugly and the Bad of our history belongs to the past<\/strong>, and we can breathe relieved after the tour ends and we go back to our lives? Or do we want to live these\u00a0stories the way we experience Hollywood movies, in search of thrill, may it be a negative on?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Visiting the Berlin\u00a0Hohensch\u00f6nhausen memorial,\u00a0the main political prison\u00a0of the former East German Communist Ministry of State Security, the Stasi, cannot be done\u00a0on your own, but only part of a guided tour. And on this early November day, our guide is a German historian\u00a0in her early thirties, with a Club Mate in her hand, friendly and straightforward, … Continue reading How close should you get: visiting the Hohensch\u00f6nhausen prison<\/span> <\/a><\/p>\n