What Berlin Can Teach Us About Social Action | Alexandra Halberstam | TEDxYouth@AnnArbor
[Music] when I was nine I visited the Jewish Museum in Berlin for the first time I was captivated by the stories tales familiar enough they could have been my grandmother telling them over Shabbat dinner I was excited to write my wishes for the future on a paper pomegranate I made sure to hang it from the highest branch of the indoor tree when I got to the second floor I thought I had taken a wrong turn the clanging sounded like dishes being washed and stacked as soon saw that the noise is coming from the shifting and REE settling of hundreds of uneven iron plates on the floor of the next exhibit I happily joined the visitors or stepping on them struggling to keep my balance I look down and that's what I noticed each plate had wide gaping eyes and a mouth open in a screen I've been visiting Germany every summer for as long as I can remember and even lived in Berlin for a year on a beautiful Street of Olga song or birdsong Road I loved hanging out at my Alma's house in the countryside next to the farm of my dad grew up and I liked the freedom to roam about the city of Berlin with friends and no adults far sooner than my parents would have allowed back home in the United States these adventures taught me many lessons three of which I'd like to share today Germany taught me about difference in fourth grade when my teacher called papa lined us up for religion class I stood alone public school religious education was as foreign to me as a Jewish classmate was to my German friends as Catholics and Protestants filed for the cafeteria and Assembly Hall I made my way alone a tiny classroom on the fourth floor I felt a pang of public isolation as never before back home in Ann Arbor I'd always enjoyed explaining my Jewish traditions to my non-jewish friends but in Berlin I only felt conspicuous even acts of concerns in double-edge police protecting us with machine guns during Shabbat services and well-meaning but incessant questions from my friends about the keeping kosher and missing school or constant reminders of the special status I would have preferred to shed my pride of difference was overshadowed by my by the discomfort of sticking out I came away from the experiences more conscious than ever before of the isolation that others too must feel in a whole variety of situations that might seem comfortable to me Germany also taught me about remembering in German there are two words but we call a memorial thank my and Mon ma thank mine which derives from the word for thinking and remembering as a reminder of something good we're celebrating or honoring a Mon ma by contrast is a reminder something bad something that should never be repeated something we must overcome or something for which we must repent the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin is perhaps Germany's most famous example of Mon Mon but I'd like to focus here on a more subtle Monmouth one that I find even more powerful sprinkled throughout Berlin and across Europe cities are small brass plaques called stove Bosch diner these small plates are engraved at the names and the fates of the victims of the Nazis and are set into the sidewalks where the victims last lived he's unassuming stumbling stones attract the eye of pedestrians passing by 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 and force onlookers to recall a single name and face remembering the victim as an individual tragedy not just as part of a horrific statistic they also serve as a daily warning about a neighbourhood specific past they prevent citizens from forgetting Ashdod bagina implicitly instruct us to recall and to address address it injustice not just in great monuments and deeds but in simple everyday action the iron plates I encountered that day at the Jewish Museum taught me at a third lesson and the final one I'd like to draw today the National Kaddish means fallen leaves can be as loud as a cafeteria or as quiet as cemetary I returned to the exhibit several times over the past few years because it fascinates me sometimes visitors crouch on the plates taking selfies and laughing at the difficulty of keeping their balance other times group stands still at the edge of the exhibit silent in thought I've noticed that visitors tend to follow the lead of the groups in front of them if one group stands still in reverent silence newcomers don't often shred onto the plates but if one person walks on others often follow after all 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 no one ever seems to make that fuss I found this to be a powerful message that can guide us looking forward as well we like to follow others we look to each other see what is socially acceptable or cool this is so for kids it seems true for adults as well we feel more comfortable when we fit in and often feel reluctant to step away from something that everyone else is doing Ottomans exhibit reminds us to think twice about following the pack sometimes falling is important more often they must act on our own decisions even if it means making a fuss back home these German lessons have continued to guide me my German lessons have may be more attuned to isolation I see in here things every day that unnecessarily alienate others swastikas painted on a prominent wall in town of public professions of allegiance to the Confederate flag both point out difference in ways that say you don't belong but even offhand comments like Orchestra gives me depression or people should chill out about their pronouns are damaging and hurtful when we mock mental illness by using it as a joke or disrespect and ignore a person's identity we widen gaps promote isolation and prevent understanding by German lessons have also made me see how he still failed to confront our own history we all too often avoid topics of slavery and lynching and the persistence of symbols of racism and hatred we do not have large monuments to the millions of lives lost to American slavery and we do not yet mark every place where lynching victims lived or lynchings occurred and we do not adequately address the persecution and destruction of Native American cultures some of Brian Stevenson the founder of the equal justice initiative are drawing on the German experience building on the stroke Bush Dinah the community remembrance project seeks to recognize individual victims of lynchings by erecting historical markers and collecting soil for individual lynching sites like the simple plaques in Berlin these markers attempt to acknowledge and address a large issue in the context of the individual lives that were and are still affected by injustice and hatred his conversations about our history also demand grappling with buildings and institutions named for individuals we celebrate some of their deeds but often ignore the isolation and destruction they created along the way in some cases we might simply choose a new name for these buildings to commemorate a positive part of our past rather than a damaging one in other situations however we might consider preserving some small reminder of our more difficult past in the form of a warning or a mon ma we should celebrate the history we are proud of but we should not hide from the events we regret returning to Cottage Minh the exhibit once more my German lessons have also taught me not to be a bystander we must all strive to be those people who do not walk on the faces we must stand up and tell others to stop we must not be complicit when our role models or their parents teachers or friends say or do things that alienate others we must show them the difference they disrespect we must teach about difference notice isolation and stand up rather than standing by when there is a fuss to be made in taking this bus you recall time that we ourselves have helped isolated remember that those who suffer have names stories and needs and we make this bus with the hopes of teaching others to respect difference to notice isolation and to take their own action however big or small that may be [Music]