Berlin Memorial Reflection

Years before the Second World War, the first anti-Semitic laws were established.

These first laws mostly took trivial privileges from Jews, aside from a few others refusing reimbursement for Jewish doctors and the expulsion of Jewish civil servants. Further along the line, though, the laws established become more punishing, with the Nuremberg Laws stripping Jews of their nationality.

There were even prohibitions on graduation, and eventually all sorts of schooling for Jews. You couldn't even buy a book in 1942. Personally, that would be the hardest to cope with if I was a Jewish person in that time period. I am a recluse, and I prefer not to interact with people (since it bothers me and I'm bad at it), so my usual time-killers are video games or books. Video games outside of arcades were non-existent at that time, meaning I would only be able to read books to spend time. Without books, I would suffer in that scenario.

In 1938, more anti-Semitic laws were made with the purpose of isolating the Jewish population, possibly for easier targeting. A few years later, Jews were essentially deprived of food and other necessities. All of the documents recording these laws were destroyed in 1945, when Germany was defeated.

In years of importance, up to ten or more laws were passed, specifically during 1933, the year Hitler rose to power;  1938, the year before the invasion of Poland; and 1942, the year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Many, many years later, in memorial of the Holocaust, over 80 signs with the anti-Semitic laws from 1933-1943 written on them are propped onto lampposts in Berlin. It's been hard trying to look for any written information regarding these signs, so I can only assume what the purpose of these signs are. My best guess for this is that these signs were meant to remind people of the cruelty of the Nazi Party to Jews. They warn people that this happened once, and it could happen again, unless we stop it.