Prague and Berlin

(the picture above is a statue of a woman holding her dead grandson who was killed in ww2. The statue is located in Berlin, Germany)

Over spring break I went to Prague and Berlin. Historically both places serve as a reminder of the 2^nd world war.

Prague was virtually untouched by the war due to them surrendering so quickly. Hitler ordered Germany's army to invade Prague on March 15, 1939. Most of Prague population during that time was made up by the Czechs, Germans, and Jews. From 1939 and during World War II, most Jews either fled the city or were killed in the Holocaust. Towards the end of the war Prague suffered some bombing by the U.S. Air Force were over one thousand people were killed and hundreds of buildings, factories, etc. were destroyed. On May 5, 1945 Prague revolted against Nazi Germany once they knew for sure that the outcome of the war was decided and Germany would surrender to the allies. While walking around parts of Prague such as Old Town Square there were plaques of remembrance for those who died during the war.







Unlike Prague, Berlin had to be almost rebuilt after both wars. On January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. Nazi rule destroyed Berlin's Jewish community, which had numbered 170,000 before 1933.During the war, large parts of Berlin were destroyed in air raids (1943-45) and during the Battle of Berlin. After the war in Europe ended in 1945, Berlin received large numbers of refugees from the Eastern provinces. The major differences I saw while walking around both places was that Berlin's history is put on plaques throughout the city to serve as reminders for the people who live there to learn from the mistakes of the past and never let them happen again. On my walking tour around East Berlin there wasn’t a single step we took that did not show the scars of the Nazis, both of the wars, the Holocaust, or the Berlin wall. Both places were nothing short of amazing and if ever visited are sure to impact lives.