Hello Antwerp and Breendonk

This is going to be a short entry, because I am simply exhausted.

After visiting Brussels, it is hard for any city to compare. However, Antwerp was beautiful in its own way. Antwerp is the second largest city in Belgium (Brussels holds 1 million people and is followed by Antwerp with 500,000 people). Also, it is an important city in Belgium and in the world for being a port. Antwerp became a key port for trade with India for spices and remains important today in the diamond trade. 80% of rough diamonds come and 50% all polished diamonds come through Antwerp. Incredible.

Being that it is a port city, there is naturally a red light district. The tour guide was not originally going to take us there assuming that as Americans we would think it inappropriate. But she recognized our interest, and she took us through the area. Well...it was an experience. While prostitution is not legal in Belgium it is allowed if it takes place behind a window and not on the street. As we were walking there was a little bit of drama. One girl on our trip wanted to take a picture not of the women in the windows but a black and red picture next to the window. However, when she lifted her camera up the prostitute nearby ran out and grabbed her camera thinking that she was trying to take a picture of her. Fortunately nothing happened, and the camera was returned. But it was still an intense moment, especially because the guide was far ahead.

Antwerp gets its name from a legend. Long ago there was a giant that was harassing the town. One day a sailor challenged the giant, and he successful cut of the giant's hand. In his moment of triumph the young sailor threw the hand into the river. This moment is captured in the fountain in the Grote Markt behind Iris and me. Also, at this Markt there is a town hall. While not featured here it was gorgeous. Plus, there was another wedding! However, I did not like the bride's dress, so I did not take a picture.







Last picture from Antwerp. Like mentioned previously, Belgium is famous for its chocolate, so we decided to test it out. So good!!! Antwerp's is famous for one chocolate in particular, chocolate hands. Naturally, this is due to the legend where the city gets its name. Here is Katie, me, Lindsay and Iris with our chocolate boxes.

After a few touristy hours in Antwerp we headed to Fort Breendonk. Fort Breendonk was a prisoner's camp during World War II. It served as a transition camp for many Jews, Catholic priests, Belgian resistors, gypsies, homosexuals, etc. until they were taking to concentration camps. While there are no gas chambers here, it is still disturbing to learn how the Nazis treated people. The humiliation and sheer torture that these prisoners endured is incomprehensible. And not to get on a soap box (because this is not the purpose of the blog), I would not feel right to exclude what was going through my head at times. I could not help compare some of the things that occurred in this camp to information that I learned about Maricopa County's Jails run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. While the experiences of the prisoners in this camp was clearly worse, there were similarities in the treatment of the captives. The fact that the guards instilled fear in the prisoners through beatings and psychological treatment, the fact that prisoners received rotten food, and the fact that the prisoners reason for death was faked on the death certificate (because they were actually killed from the abuse of guards) immediately reminded me of similar situations in Arizona. That was one of the most disturbing realization. It seems that humans are slow to learn and are easily susceptible to repeating history. But I will not continue on my rant of Arizona.

Here is a picture from a memorial room. On the walls are all the names of people that went through this camp. In the middle on the table are urns. On each urn is a name of a concentration camp that the prisoners were sent to. Inside each urn is some ashes and land from each of these concentration camps. It was a powerful little memorial that was created inside the camp.


 Last picture. This picture is taken from inside a room for the soldiers.  At times cases were heard here of prisoners who were quickly tried, found guilty, and killed all in one day. Also, the guards held festivities here in the evenings. There was often heavy drinking, which lead to various bets as to who could most abuse a Jewish person the next day. The camp here was run by the SS. Therefore, featured in the middle of this picture is a banner with the SS motto and there logo (a skull). There motto was "Meine Ehre Heist Treue" (My Honor is Loyalty. However, what I found most interesting, and so why I included this picture, as the lamps. The paintings surrounding each lamp is a symbol for Germany. The bottom rectangles are green and brown and represent the rich earth of German. The triangle is green and represents the strong buildings of Germany. The long sticks are green and represent Germany's forests. And in the middle of these sticks are two carets, these represent Germany's mountains. In one image all of Germany's diversity is represented.