Creativity, Catastrophe, and a Remade Community The Jews of Germany Munich - Nuremberg - Leipzig - Dresden - Berlin - Hamburg May 19-31,2022 11/24/2020 The Neue Synagogue of Berlin built in 1866, which survived the Night of Broken Glass DAY 1 - Wednesday May 18 IN FLIGHT Depart SFO on a non-stop flight to Munich on United Airlines or Lufthansa. DAY 2 - Thursday May 19 (D) MUNICH Arrive in Munich in late afternoon. Check in at the hotel and enjoy welcome dinner. Overnight: Hotel Platzl, Munich DAY3 - Friday May 20 (B, D) MUNICH Enjoy a city tour starting at the Marienplatz. This medieval public square is the heart of the Munich; since its construction it has been the site of tournaments, executions, markets, and public events. Originally the square was called Schrannen but was renamed, St. Mary's Square, in an appeal to the Virgin Mary to protect the city from a cholera epidemic. The square's most famous site is the glockenspiel or carillon located on the New Town Hall tower façade. Several times a day the glockenspiel's 32 life-size carved figures dance the Schafferltanz, a traditional dance first danced to celebrate the end of the plague in 1517. Marienplatz - Munich Continue to the Ohel Jacob synagogue. It was built between 2004 and 2006 as the new main synagogue for the Jewish community in Munich. The synagogue was inaugurated on 9 November 2006 on the 68th anniversary of the Kristallnacht. Munich's original main synagogue was destroyed in June 1938 and stood a few blocks away from the new synagogue, on ground that is now a parking ramp. In the same complex visit the Jewish Museum reopened in 2007. At the end visit the Englischer Garten, a large public park stretching from the city center to the northeastern city limits. Created in 1789, it is one of Europe's largest urban public parks, larger than Golden Gate Park. Attend Shabbat services at liberal synagogue Beth Shalom. Return to the hotel for Shabbat dinner. Overnight: Hotel Platzl, Munich DAY 4 - Saturday May 21 (B) MUNICH-DACHAU Visit Dachau Concentration Camp located ten miles from Munich. Dachau, the first of the Nazi concentration camps, opened in Germany in 1933 to hold political prisoners. Its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, ordinary German and Austrian criminals, and eventually foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The camp was liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945. Continue to the Documentation Center of the History on National Socialism, inaugurated in May 2015. The Center is a place of learning and remembrance devoted to addressing the city’s Nazi past and the origins, manifestations, and consequences of the Nazi dictatorship. Continue to the Olympic Stadium and stop at the memorial for the eleven Israeli athletes assassinated during the 1972 Olympic Games. Enjoy a free evening. Overnight: Hotel Platzl, Munich DAY 5 - Sunday May 22 (B) MUNICH-NUREMBERG-LEIPZIG Travel to Nuremberg. Visit the Palace of Justice where the Nuremberg trials took place exactly 70 years ago. After lunch, visit the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds. To this day, in Nuremberg's southern districts, the remains of the buildings on the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds with their immense proportions are a vivid testimony to the megalomania of the National Socialist regime. This area was intended as an impressive backdrop for the Nazi party rallies staged here to demonstrate their power. The Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds; is in the north wing of the Congress Hall, designed by the National Socialists to house 50,000 spectators, remained unfinished. It focuses on the topics which have a direct link to Nuremberg, and is centered on 19 exhibition areas which are structured in chronological order: the history of the party rallies, the buildings of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, the "Nuremberg Racial Laws" of 1935, the "Nuremberg Trials" of the main perpetrators of Nazi crimes in 1945/46 and the twelve follow-up trials, as well as the difficult problem of dealing with the National Socialists' architectural heritage after 1945.Travel to Leipzig. Check in at the hotel and enjoy a free evening. Overnight: Hotel Steigenberger, Leipzig. DAY 6 - Monday May 23 (B, L) LEIPZIG Visit the Jewish cemetery. Continue to Centrum Judaicum, the main institution of 1,300 Jews in the city and the close-by Brody Synagogue, which survived the Nazi regime. Meet Rabbi Zsolt Balla and Mrs. Klaudia Krenn to talk about Jewish life in Leipzig today. At noon visit the Runden Ecke Museum. The museum is about the history, structure and working methods of the Stasi and participates actively in the social discourse on dictatorships, their consequences and of civil and human rights. In the afternoon enjoy a city tour and finish with the impressive Monument to the Battle of Nations that commemorates the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig. Enjoy a free afternoon. Overnight: Hotel Steigenberger, Leipzig. Monument of the Battle of the Nations - Leipzig DAY 7 - Tuesday May 24 (B) LEIPZIG - DRESDEN - BERLIN After breakfast, we leave Leipzig and drive to Dresden, one of Europe’s most beautiful and culturally rich cities. The Wettin dynasty, and especially King August the Strong in the 18th century, brought unparalleled riches to this city, the capital of Saxony. Dresden saw its darkest hour in February 1945 when the historic center was virtually destroyed in a massive bombing raid. The Nazis had already burned down the old Semper Synagogue during the Kristallnacht in November 1938. The small but flourishing Jewish community of Dresden was also decimated. The few survivors, like Victor Klemperer, told a complex story of living in pre- and post- WWII Dresden. Like a phoenix, Dresden has risen out of the ashes and visitors enjoy its baroque beauty once again. Like the city itself, the Dresden Jewish community has recently experienced a renaissance attested to by the unique New Synagogue with its golden tent-like inner structure, suggesting flexibility within stability. Our visit will take in the New Synagogue, built on the remnants of the original synagogue, and the Jewish Community Center. We also see the Semper Opera, the magnificent Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche), and the baroque Zwinger Palace, which are all among the world's most impressive feats of architecture. Driving along the Elbe River we will see many of the famous palaces of the Saxony kings. In late afternoon drive to Berlin. Check in at the hotel. Overnight: Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Berlin DAY 8 - Wednesday May 25 (B) BERLIN Holocaust Memorial - Berlin We begin our day in the historic heart of Berlin with a visit to Peter Eisenman’s monumental and controversial memorial to the Six Million and continue with a tour of the museum beneath it. Next, we walk to the nearby Brandenburg Gate and ponder the glories and atrocities of Prussian/German history. We continue to Babelplatz with the memorial to the Nazi book burnings in 1935 and the Block of Women sculpture at Rosenstrasse. The Rosenstrasse protest was a nonviolent protest in Berlin in February and March 1943, carried out by the non-Jewish ("Aryan") wives and relatives of Jewish men who had been arrested for deportation. The protests escalated until the men were released. It was a significant instance of effective opposition to Nazi tyranny. At the end of the day visit the Berlin Wall Memorial, which divided the city in between 1963-1989. Enjoy a free evening. Overnight: Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Berlin DAY 9 - Thursday May 26 (B) BERLIN In the morning we will start to the New Synagogue and Centrum Judaicum on Oranienburger Strasse. Then continue to Topography of Terror, a museum located on the site of the Gestapo and the SS headquarters, which tells the story of the Nazi regime and its crimes. At the end of the morning visit the close by “Checkpoint Charlie’. In the afternoon at meet with Jewish community leaders at the hotel and discuss the current situation in Germany and Europe. Enjoy a free evening. Overnight: Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Berlin Jewish Museum - Berlin DAY 10 - Friday May 27 (B, L, D) BERLIN We start the day visiting the Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind, for a self-guided visit; the museum conveys ten centuries of Jewish presence in Germany. In the afternoon we enjoy a guided tour of the brilliantly remodeled Reichstag Building (Germany’s parliament) with its panoramic views of Berlin. Lunch is included at the Parliament. In the evening attend Shabbat services at the magnificent OranienburgerStrasse synagogue, which miraculously survived Kristallnacht, for a progressive, egalitarian Shabbat service, followed by Shabbat dinner at the hotel in a private room. Overnight: Adlon Kempinski, Berlin DAY 11 - Saturday May 28 (B) BERLIN-WANNSEE Today, we embark on a full-day trip to the lakeside suburbs of Wannsee. Start at the Glienicke Bridge where the spies were exchanged. At the Wannsee House, now an impressive Holocaust study center, we will see the room in which the Final Solution was plotted by Nazi leaders. Next, we will appreciate the glory of German Jewry by visiting the house and museum of the great Impressionist painter Max Liebermann. The rest of the afternoon is at your leisure for individual activities, such as a boat trip, shopping on the fashionable Unter den Linden, or a visit to another museum such as the world-famous repository of antiquities, the Pergamon. Enjoy a free evening. Overnight: Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Berlin Fred Rosenbaum at Judisches Lehrhaus Berlin (2010) DAY 12 - Sunday May 29 (B) BERLIN-HAMBURG Drive to Hamburg. City tour visiting the Elbphilharmonie.