travel Jewish Berlin • The capital city where hip meets history. Susan R. Pollack Special to the Jewish News p ack plenty of tissues if you're bound for Berlin, ground zero for the Holocaust that extinguished the lives of 6 million European Jews and oth- ers deemed unworthy of life by the German Nazis during World War II. But don't let the likelihood of tears stop you from visiting this vibrant German capital whose current ethos on the cutting edge of hipness is overlaid with a heavy sense of his- tory. I was struck by that duality on a recent trip focused on the approaching 25th anniversary, Nov. 9, of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Despite Berlin's fascinating past as a divided and now reunified city, I was even more intrigued by its tragic World War II Jewish history — and how Berliners have chosen to deal with it. The most haunting moment came late on a Saturday night at Pauly Saal, a stylish, Michelin-starred restaurant in the Mitte district, the historic heart of Berlin that was home before the war to many thousands of Jews. Relaxing with travel colleagues, I had a chilling flashback to the late 1930s when the chic building in which we sat thrived for a time as Berlin's first Jewish Girls' School. That is, until the girls disappeared, deported with their families to Nazi concentration camps. I'd learned their disturbing story that morning on a Jewish Heritage walking tour with historian Chaja Baebl, a guide with Milk and Honey Tours. Strolling through the now- gentrified old Jewish quarter, she pointed out historic sites including the onetime girls' school where the restaurant today shares space with a New York-style deli, art galleries and, in a quirky twist, a museum devoted to President John E Kennedy, who won German hearts by declaring himself a "Berliner" in his famous 1963 speech at the Brandenburg Gate. History Broken, Changed "History was broken here ... and history has changed:' Baebl said, as we passed hidden, graffiti-splashed courtyards filled with reno- vated apartment buildings, boutiques and cafes. "It's overwhelming, even when you live here. You always have to juxtapose the past and present:' Bicycles and Segway tours zipped past as we viewed the park-like remains of Berliris first Jewish cemetery, which dates to 1672 but was destroyed by the Nazis. We paused at the nearby memorial to 55,000 murdered Berlin Jews and admired the Moorish-style gilded dome on the New Synagogue, consecrated in 42 October 16 • 2014 The Jewish Museum of Berlin, with a striking new wing designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, offers a fascinating look at 2,000 years of German Jewish history. Among the many exhibits at the Jewish Museum of Berlin is this haunting, interactive installation, "Shalekhet" ("Fallen Leaves") by Israeli artist Menashe Kadishman. Left: "Block of Women," a large sandstone monument in Berlin's Rosenstrasse, commemorates a 1943 public protest by Aryan wives of Jewish men against the Nazi persecution of German Jews. 1866. The synagogue was attacked but spared in November 1938, on Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass:' thanks to the inter- vention of a German police official. The building, seriously damaged by Allied bombing in 1943, was restored years later, minus the sanctuary. It now houses an exhibit on Jewish life and is open for services and tours where visitors may learn that Albert Einstein played violin in a charity concert there in 1930. Throughout the neighborhood, I noticed small brass plaques embedded in the side- walk in front of many buildings. They're called Stolpersteine, or "stumbling blocks:' and are inscribed with the names and dates of birth, deportation and death of former residents. Part of a once-underground, now sanctioned project by Berlin-born artist Gunter Demnig, the memorials are poignant reminders of real people whose lives were wiped out in the Holocaust. Each inscription starts with the words, "Hier Wohnte" — "Here lived" — and tissues come in handy when you ponder the victims' fates. More than 6,000 of the memorials have been installed in Berlin since 1996, Demnig said. The project has spread to 964 communi- ties in Germany and 18 European countries and now totals 47,000-plus stumbling blocks. Continuing our tour, Baebl led me to a small square in the Rosenstrasse where a large sandstone monument, "Block of Women:' commemorates a rare public protest against Nazi persecution of German Jews. In late February 1943, the Aryan wives of some 2,000 Jewish men staged a weeklong demonstration against the sudden arrest and pending deportation to Auschwitz of their previously exempt husbands. The women's noisy defiance in the face of armed Gestapo guards and machine gun-toting SS ultimately was successful. No look at Jewish Berlin would be com- plete without a stop at the Holocaust memo- rial, known formally as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Walking amid the cemetery-like maze of 2,711 concrete slabs of varying heights was an unsettling experi- ence, especially upon learning that Hitler's bunker lies beneath a nearby parking lot. Check out the photo displays and victims' life stories, complete with haunting music, in the underground exhibit. I spent an afternoon, but wished I had longer, at the Jewish Museum of Berlin, where visitors enter an 18th-century court- house and follow an underground passage to the steel-clad wing designed by Daniel Libeskind, who later was chosen as master planner for the new World Trade Center. The museum presents a fascinating look at 2,000 years of German Jewish history, but it is the new wing's bold, zigzag design with cavernous "voids" and bare concrete walls that make palpable the feelings of isolation, emptiness and loss of the Holocaust. Those feelings are amplified by the outdoor "Garden of Exile" and another interactive installation called "Shalekhet" ("Fallen Leaves") by Israeli artist Menashe Kadishman. The echoing sounds from walk- ing across a floor strewn with 10,000 flat, iron faces with hollow eyes and gaping mouths will haunt you long after your trip to Berlin ends. ❑ Air Berlin flies nonstop from Chicago to Berlin, with continuing flights to other European destinations. My travel group also visited the glass- domed Bundestag, home to Germany's Parliament (advance registration required); an outdoor weekend flea market near the Tiergarten; and the Berlin Wall Memorial, a preserved, 200-foot portion of the Communist- erected wall – and adjacent "no man's land" death strip – that divided East and West Berlin for 28 years. The 25th anniversary "Fall of the Wall" celebration will feature the launch in November of 8,000 illuminated white balloons. To learn more, check www. wall.visitBerlin.de .