Stalin and Goldberg in Berlin (6,586 km)

(2022-06-01/03) Berlin is the last stage of my „Journey Along the New Iron Curtain.“ Nowhere are the symbols that illustrated the East-West conflict so present, right up to the remains of the Berlin Wall that divided the city into two hostile parts for more than 28 years from August 1961 to November 1989. That is why there are not one but two Soviet War Memorials, a normal size one in the district of Tiergarten in the West, and a gigantic one in the district of Treptow in the East. There we can read eight quotes by Josef Stalin, engraved in gold letters in Russian and German, on 16 white sarcophagi made of lime sandstone. One quote reads: "Hitler's scoundrels have set themselves the goal to enslave or exterminate the population of Ukraine, Bielorussia, the Baltic States, Moldavia, Crimea and the Caucasus. ‚Our goal is clear and noble. We want to liberate our Soviet soil.‘“ Doesn't it sound very familiar and up-to-date to you and isn't it revealing that already Stalin wanted to liberate not the peoples but the "Soviet soil"?

Let's leave that behind and go to the Havel River, where the Jewish Theater Ship MS Goldberg is moored. The ship was inaugurated ten days ago. The premiere of "The Singer" on 23.05.2022 was attended, among others, by Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey, who welcomed the theater ship makers and the audience. Do you have any idea who "The Singer" might be? It is none other than "our" magnificent lyric tenor - Height: 5' 0¼" (1,53 m) - Joseph Schmidt. Berlin has yet another attraction of Jewishness and we are very curious to see how it will be accepted by the audience.