Memorials are tricky business. As a former New Yorker, I remember cringing looking at some of the memorial proposals for the World Trade Center. Berlin has a number of sensitive, non-offensive, non-aggressive public memorials. It’s one of my favorite parts about the city. They don’t force you to feel “sad” or grieve; their open-ended simplicity is more likely to make the viewer stand back and contemplate history and the human condition.

Paul and I went to see the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe in mid-September. The uneven surface of the ground makes a grid of pillars are alternating disorienting and lovely. The day I visited it was a place of both somber reflection and joy. (children were playing tag by weaving in and out of the pillars).

A section of the former Berlin wall by Potsdamer Platz is now an uneven grassy steppe. Gigantic see-saws sit on the boundary that once divided East from West Berlin.

My friend Dan showed me a set of small plaques set between the cobblestones outside of buildings. They're imprinted with the names, birthdates, and deportation dates of Jews who lived in the buildings and died during the war.