Europe - 2025 - Memories + New Experiences






(Menachem) Imanuel Marx - 06/29/1918-11/13/6 - Residence from Birth - 1927

Youngest Son of Moses Marx (1885-1973) - my Grandfather
 


Moses Marx - Merchant - 11 Helmstederstrasse, Wilmersdorf, Berlin

In talking with several people passing by, I learned that most of the buildings on my father's bloack and nearby had been built around 1900.   There was damage from World War II bombing, and most of them had been repaired.   I couldn't tell with 100% certainty that the house my father lived in was (not) rebuilt (some from their doors clearly were over 100 years old), but it seems likely it is the original building, probably with the apartments made into smaller units that I imagine my grandfather's residence would have been (he was wealthy prior to the end of World War I).

Plaque - re: Albert Einstein

Talking with several people walking in my father's birthplace neighborhood, I learned that about 2 1/2 blocks from where my father lived from his birth in 1918, (I'm guessing) until emigrating to Cincinnati in 1927, was the residence of Albert Einstein from 1917 (recruited from Zurich) until the end of 1932 - when on a trip to the U.S. - he saw the upcoming rise of Hitler, and never came back.   The apartment building was destroyed by allied bombing, but the plague is at the location of the newer building in German and English.


glistening glass- residence - our home 1962-3 - Zurich 
3rd Residential Level - 4th Floor (was elevator) - attic above



The View - and this is from street level - we were the 4th floor of the building


The Cog Railway - down from our Home

I remember clearly, our first day heading to the private British School across the street from Lake Zurich.   My brother Dan, a fifth grader, and I a sixth grader.  I spoke in my "best" German, and the conductor responded in excellent English.    2025 - in - the rebuilt, modernized train - driverless - ticketing in Zurich is all presuming one will purchase a ticket at the stop one gets on, assuming one doesn't have a pass.  

We took the 10 tram to Bellevue, switched to the 3 or 4 (as I remember them, now appear to be 2 or 4) several stops, and then walked to our school.   We had transit passes, which allowed unlimited travel.   We could go anywhere we wanted to in Zurich through transit and walking, as long as we were home before it got dark.

This trip - had two meaningful things related to my past!   Zurich was the only happy year of my childhood!   It was a year when our father was with us two children weekends and holiday times - when we traveled.  We played card games on the train rides.   Unlike - at home in Indiana, Dad wasn't focused mostly on his work as a math professor.   

We had a lot of vacations.   Six weeks - starting in March - three weeks in Italy, a Zim boat from Naples to Haifa.   For Dad, his first time seeing most of his relatives he'd "left" in 1927 when he left Berlin for the U.S.

It was the year his cancer was in remission, the most wonderful year of his life (probably) along with a fun year for Dan and I.

Berlin - my first visit - to my father's birthplace and where he lived until he was nine.

I am a deeply emotional person!   My feelings - the tears - tell me - that I have a lot of work to go through now as I approach age 74.

More on Zurich and Berlin later.

PORTUGAL

Great View of the Old City and the river in the distance


Old Lisbon - Very Beautiful!


The Wall - the Jewish Quarter just outside - "The Old City"

Jewish Street


Jewish Tiles - in a city of tiles - often blue


Vertical book/record store - creative use of space

April 5th - my Only Protest - volunteered for security - ex-pats mostly


Sintra - Gorgeous Town with - the King's Summer Castle Above it




Sintra


Castle Edge - Sintra


Royal Chest


Royal Decoration - Fun


Portuguese - Coast - away from Lisbon


Porto


Porto - Historic Train Station

ZURICH (+ Switzerland)

Zurich - where I mistranslated and then
ordered - Pigs Feet (which we didn't eat) over 40 years ago


From Central Z - by the two major Universities

Niederdorfstrasse - by our hotel

Zurich - wealth and beauty - the Dolder Grand Hotel and Area




Basel - old area

Basel's Great - Art Museum




Inside the Ice Cave Area - Jungfraujoch -11,000 altitude







AMSTERDAM
















Amsterdam Shop

Rijksmuseum 


Nazified - Militarized Chess Board




Nazi History - Readily Shown


Beautiful Vaginal Lips

Readily - Noted - Miltarized Artwork



Black Beauty


Amsterdam- Party Down - Weekend Morning After - not cleaned up yet


BERLIN



Sachsenhausen (German pronunciation: [zaksn̩ˈhaʊzn̩]) or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year.[2][3] It mainly held political prisoners throughout World War II. Prominent prisoners included Joseph Stalin's oldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili; assassin Herschel Grynszpan; Paul Reynaud, the penultimate prime minister of the French Third Republic; Francisco Largo Caballero, prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War; the wife and children of the crown prince of Bavaria; Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera; and several enemy soldiers and political dissidents.

Sachsenhausen was a labour camp, outfitted with several subcamps, a gas chamber, and a medical experimentation area. Prisoners were treated inhumanely, fed inadequately, and killed openly. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used by the NKVD as NKVD special camp Nr. 7. Today, Sachsenhausen is open to the public as a memorial.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsenhausen_concentration_camp










































ICELAND

From our Balcony


Lava and Lake


Lava Field


Lotsa Lava


Snow in the Distance


Reykjavik and Mountains in the Distance


Georgeous Sunset - only about 10:30 or a little later at Night


Darkness Coming


Chilled - but Enjoying It


Northern Lights I - Not a Great View - but


N L II


NL III


























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