The Prism of Time

BERLIN--Each day of this trip presents us with a new picture. Today, remnants of the infamous Berlin Wall, photos of those who died trying to cross it, personal accounts of those intent on not letting the wall fade from memory.

But for many young Berliners with whom we have met, the wall is a memory from before their time. It is more than 20 years since the night in 1989 when the wall was breached and, as communism crumbled, the dismantling began. In Berlin, there are those who would remove every trace of what the wall meant during the 28 years it stood. There are others who would build it back.

What was East Berlin is a different place from what I first saw about 1970 and even from what I last saw just five years ago. The challenge our post-cold war students have is to grasp why this is a significant piece of history and what it must have been like to live on either side of the Berlin Wall. Perhaps today, standing in the middle of one of the few preserved sections of what had been the "death strip," that became a bit more real.

When I used to cross Checkpoint Charlie between the American and Soviet sectors of Berlin, it was serious business. The Vopos--East Germany's volkspolizei guards--were purposefully intimidating, even though I had the security of an American passport. Checkpoint Charlie today is an anachronistic commercial circus. An ersatz Vopo will stamp your passport, your arm or forehead--for two Euros. A sloppy impersonator of a U.S. soldier will pose for a photo with you by the old guard shack--two Euros, please. That's hardly the mental snapshot I have of Checkpoint Charlie.

As we have travelled through Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany, we have gathered a collection of snapshots. Our students have shared some of their digital files. Mine tend to be on a mental file. It's good to have both kinds.

Five years from now, if our students come back--and I hope they will--these places will have changed again. But if you hold the prism just right, it reflects back on time and captures the changes.

CB -- July 8