Yesterday we had a stop at Bamburg where we saw the medieval cathedral and the monastery, now a senior residence. It rained off and on all day as it has the past few days. We see peeks of sun, then rain. It is definitely not warm here. More like March - cool, windy and wet.
This very old city was largely untouched by the war. There wasn't much industry here and so it was not a strategic target. Here is an unusual bit of sun!! Windy. The above photos aren't very straight.
Today we had a really wonderful tour of Nurnberg and some key sites from Nazi Germany. We saw the parade grounds and the famous podium where Hitler address the multitudes in the late 1930's. I recognized this podium structure from post war news reels.
Here is the Coliseum partially constructed by the Nazis as their palace and showplace for their ideology. It was never finished and now is an incomplete hollow hulk. Parts are used as a museum which we toured. It has a granite exterior which I didn't take and the brick interior shown here. The granite came from quarries worked by prisoners. Thousands died in those quarries.
The best part of this tour was a lecture given by our guide in the museum about the war trials in Nurnberg. The courthouse building was closed today as it always is on Tuesdays, but the slides and lecture were so good we ended up not caring. Courtroom 600 is still in use today for trials for capital crimes. It has been modified since the late 40's so we saw what it looked like then in photos during the lecture. Only those indicted by the international court for crimes in several countries (about 20) were tried during this time. Of those, 10 were convicted and executed, 3 were found innocent, one was missing (later found dead), and several of the convicted committed suicide prior to execution. Several were imprisioned for years. We were driven by the courthouse and old prison area. Photos were difficult.
We visited the old center city area. Nurnberg's old wall surrounding the old city is still completely intact.
Fountain in market area.
Summary: Our guide told us that Germans through the 1960's preferred to ignore the 12 years of the Nazis, but now teach their children about it. Hence they built the museum fairly recently, and we saw many young people there today. All the guides we've had on this trip express a collective German consciousness about this part of their history. One can't help but be impressed and moved.
