In the afternoon we took the U-Bahn to the Jewish Museum. We divided into three groups to get guided tours which brought out various aspects of the Jewish experience in Europe. One of the guides, Adam, was keen to explain the significance of Daniel Liebeskind's building, which is one of the most striking pieces of 20th Century architecture and is an integrated part of the interpretation of Jewish life in Germany.
Adam made us think about how the exhibits in his chosen areas of the 19th Century showed Jews in Germany legally excluded from public life then increasingly assimilated as the German Empire developed. He successfully encouraged us to reveal our stereotypes and then showed how we could compare similar ideas in British and German society at the time. All this has prepared us for our visits to the concentration camps that were to come
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