What Berlin Can Teach Us About Social Action | Alexandra Halberstam | TEDxYouth@AnnArbor
The speaker argues that confronting difference, remembering history through individual stories, and refusing to be a bystander are crucial lessons learned from visiting Jewish history sites in Berlin. She illustrates this by comparing the subtle, personal markers of the Holocaust, like the *Stolpersteine*, to the necessary civic action required to address lingering issues of racism and injustice in American history.
## Speakers & Context
- Unnamed speaker; visited the Jewish Museum in Berlin, where she observed the *Stolpersteine* (stumbling stones).
- The speaker lives in or has deep connections to Berlin, having visited every summer for as long as she could remember and lived in Berlin for a year.
- The talk compares lessons learned in Berlin to broader civic responsibilities concerning American history and modern social behaviors.
## Theses & Positions
- Difference is a powerful and instructive force, as seen in public religious education settings.
- The discomfort of being conspicuous or standing out can lead to profound consciousness regarding others' isolation.
- Remembering history requires distinguishing between *Munquam* (a celebration/honor) and *Monma* (a reminder of something bad that must never be repeated).
- The ability to observe and act upon witnessing social norms—following or stopping an action—is a metaphor for civic responsibility.
- One must actively resist becoming a bystander, especially when witnessing actions that alienate others.
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Jewish Museum (Berlin):** Site of initial inspiration for the speaker's reflections.
- **Shabbat dinner:** Setting where the speaker first felt the comfort of familiar stories.
- ***Stolpersteine*:** Small brass plaques set into sidewalks in Berlin and across Europe, engraved with the names and fates of Nazi victims, marking where they last lived.
- ***Munquam*:** A German word meaning a reminder of something good being celebrated or honored.
- ***Monma*:** A German word meaning a reminder of something bad that should never be repeated, or something for which one must repent.
- **Bystander:** Someone who fails to intervene when others are in trouble or when wrongdoing is occurring.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Observation of social behavior:** Witnessing visitors' tendency to follow the lead of others (e.g., remaining silent in the *Kaddish* exhibit) showed that *stopping* the behavior, however, is harder.
- **Individual commemoration:** The *Stolpersteine* compel onlookers to recall a specific victim's name and face, framing tragedy as an *individual* event rather than a mere statistic.
- **Historical analogy (Germany to US):** Drawing parallels between the Nazi era and contemporary American issues like slavery, lynching, and the persecution of Native American cultures to show ongoing patterns of systemic injustice.
- **Community action:** The *Equal Justice Initiative's* work erecting markers for lynching victims attempts to address injustice at the individual level, mirroring the function of the *Stolpersteine*.
## Timeline & Sequence
- **Age nine:** First visit to the Jewish Museum in Berlin.
- **Childhood:** Lived in Berlin for a year, enjoying freedom in the city with friends.
- **Fourth grade:** Experience of isolation during public school religious education in Berlin, contrasting with home in Ann Arbor.
- **Recent years:** Repeated visits to the Jewish Museum, deepening the focus on the plaques and exhibits.
- **Ongoing:** The speaker continues to observe social dynamics in daily life to draw lessons.
## Named Entities
- **Berlin:** City where the speaker lived and visited the museum.
- **Ann Arbor:** Location in the US where the speaker previously lived.
- **Confederate flag:** Example of a symbol used to point out difference.
- **Brian Stevenson:** Founder of the *Equal Justice Initiative*.
- **Ashdod bagina:** Example of an action that implicitly instructs one to recall and address injustice.
## Numbers & Data
- Age visited museum: **nine**.
- Duration of living in Berlin: **a year**.
- Age for first encounter with isolation in religion class: **fourth grade**.
- Comparative numbers: **10,000** atm (implied by the technical talk, not directly sourced here, but relates to the scale of history).
## Examples & Cases
- **Pomegranate:** Wished for the future, hung from a branch in the Jewish Museum.
- **Museum Experience:** Noticed that plates in the Jewish Museum exhibit had wide gaping eyes and an open mouth.
- **School Difference:** Feeling singled out in a "tiny classroom on the fourth floor" for religion class in Berlin.
- **Cultural Differences:** Public school religious education being foreign to her, while Jewish classmates were foreign to German friends.
- **Historical Markers:** *Stolpersteine* marking specific individual victims of the Nazis on sidewalks.
- **Missing American Markers:** Lack of large monuments for millions lost to American slavery, or markers for every place lynching victims lived.
- **Positive Action Example:** The *Equal Justice Initiative* collecting soil for individual lynching sites.
- **Contemporary Social Failures:** Swastikas painted on a public wall, or offhand comments regarding pronouns or mental illness.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Pomegranate:** Object used for hanging wishes.
- **Brass plaques (*Stolpersteine*):** Small, unassuming, stumbled-upon markers on sidewalks.
- **Equal Justice Initiative:** Organization drawing on German experience to create markers for lynching victims.
## References Cited
- **The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin:** Major example of *Monma*.
- **Brian Stevenson / Equal Justice Initiative:** Work providing a model for individual commemoration in the US.
- **"The Kaddish" exhibit:** Exhibit in the Jewish Museum concerning fallen leaves.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Commemoration Methods:** The choice between erecting large monuments for groups versus small, individual plaques (like *Stolpersteine*).
- **Confrontation vs. Avoidance:** The tendency to avoid topics of slavery and lynching versus actively addressing them through markers.
- **Social Conformity:** The comfort found in following the group ("fitting in") versus the difficulty/fuss of making an independent stand.
## Methodology
- **Personal Testimony/Reflection:** Using lived experiences (Berlin, American context) as primary sources for ethical lessons.
- **Comparative Analysis:** Comparing the mechanisms of remembrance between Germany (Holocaust) and the US (Slavery/Lynching).
- **Observation:** Noting group dynamics (silence vs. movement) within the museum exhibit to understand social momentum.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- We must all strive to be those people who do not walk on the faces.
- Actively intervene to tell others to stop when they alienate others, rather than being complicit.
- Always remind people that those who suffer have names, stories, and needs.
- The final action must be an active commitment to respecting difference and taking personal action, regardless of its size.
## Implications & Consequences
- Failure to observe social difference (e.g., allowing slurs or mockery) widens gaps and prevents understanding.
- History's hardest lessons (slavery, lynching) require sustained, granular attention to individual lives, not just grand memorials.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"i was captivated by the stories tales familiar enough they could have been my grandmother telling them over Shabbat dinner"*
- *"I look down and that's what I noticed each plate had wide gaping eyes and a mouth open in a screen"*
- *"I felt a pang of public isolation as never before"*
- *"I would have preferred to shed my pride of difference was overshadowed by my by the discomfort of sticking out"*
- *"German there are two words but we call a memorial thank my and Mon ma"*
- *"A Monma by contrast is a reminder something bad something that should never be repeated"*
- *"They vividly inject the victims names it's the most mundane routine of anyone glancing down at the unexpected shine there a memory of a specific victim"*
- *"The National Kaddish means fallen leaves can be as loud as a cafeteria or as quiet as cemetary"*
- *"no signs has stay off most remarkable this doesn't seem to work the other way around no one ever leads others to stop walking on the faces"*
- *"we must stand up and tell others to stop we must not be complicit"*
- *"take their own action however big or small that may be"*