On day 6 of the Germany Trip, we visited the Cecileinhof Palace in Potsdam. The palace was built from 1914 to 1917 and it was built for Crown Prince William and his wife, Crown Princess Cecile. The prince did not live at the Palace for very long. In 1918, the Kaiser abdicated and the Palace was handed over to the date in 1926.
The 3 Allied powers; Stalin from Russia, Churchill from Britain and Truman from USA met at the Palace for the Potsdam Conference. Their aim was to resolve the problems arising at the end of the war and to discuss what to do with Germany who had surrendered on 8th May, nine weeks before the conference. During their stay at the Palace, Stalin overheard the conversation between Truman and Attlee about the use of atomic bomb. Stalin was angry as he was kept in the dark. USA and Britain were democratic countries while USSR was communist. Stalin was afraid that they would use the atomic bomb on them. From then on, Stalin became suspicious of the other two Allied Powers. This was one of the factors that started the Cold War and caused their relationship to strain.
This incident shows the lack of trust among them. Although we must beware of people around us, we should not get too suspicious of them or life will be miserable because we are very cautious about every single thing. It taught us not to trust people too easily as you would not know whether the person who is closets to you might betray you or not.
Next, we had a city tour around Bamberg. Bamberg is located in East Germany. It is a heritage city with many old buildings when compared to the West Germany. It was undamaged during the World War II. The old buildings in Bamberg were conserved and converted into museums. The government actually bothers to keep the buildings to remind its people of past history. From here, we learnt that it is important to conserve the buildings as they can tell us more about the history of the place. We should also take pride in what we have, for instance the buildings, as they were passed down from our forefather who worked very hard to construct them. In short, we must take pride in everything we do, be it for the country, people, family or ourselves.
On the fifth day of the Germany trip, we visited a few interesting places. Our first stop was the Anne Frank museum. Anne Frank was a Jew. During Hitler’s rule, he wanted to exterminate the Jew and Anne Frank was one of them. However, she didn’t give up and persevered to the end. At the age of fifteen, she was sent to the concentration camp and she died there sadly. From the visit, we learnt that we must preserve and never give up. Secondly, we must also have aspirations. Although Anne Frank was young, she had big dreams of becoming a writer. Hence, we should learn from her so that we can work towards our dreams.
The building was actually a parliament building. When the old building was burned down, the new one was rebuilt with a dome to provide a better view of the building. The old Reichstag building was believed to be burned by Hitler.
The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS / Ministry for State Security), commonly known as the Stasi (from Staatssicherheit), was the main security (secret police) and intelligence organization of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Lichtenberg and several smaller complexes throughout the city. Widely regarded as one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world, the Stasi’s motto was “Schild und Schwert der Partei” (Shield and Sword of the Party), showing its connections to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the equivalent to the CPSU of the Soviet Union. Another term used in earlier years to refer to the Stasi was Staatssicherheitsdienst (State Security Service).
Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank (June 12, 1929 – early March 1945) was a Jewish girl who wrote a diary while in hiding with her family and four friends in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.
The Berlin Wall, known in the Soviet Union and in the German Democratic Republic as the “Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart,” was a separation barrier between West and East Germany.
On day 3, we went to the concentration camp. From this visit, we learnt how to treasure one’s life. This is because we saw gruesome pictures of how the prisoners were tortured and killed. We also learnt we should appreciate the peace we have in Singapore where all races are treated equally unlike in World War 2, where the Jews were treated with discrimination. We were disturbed by the gruesome pictures and we felt very sorry for the victims. The concentration camp served a warning from history to prevent the holocaust from happening again.
Nazi party rally grounds (in German Reichsparteitagsgelände) is the name of a site in the southeast of Nuremberg (UGN: 
Nuremberg Palace of Justice (germ. Justizpalast) is a building complex at Fürtherstrasse 22 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany is most famous for being the location of the famous Nuremberg Trials that were held after the Second World War for the “henchmen” of Adolf Hitler, between 1945 and 1949 for those who were still presumed to be alive. Among the infamous ones who made the appearance were Hermann Göring (suicide by potassium cyanide), Rudolf Hess (life internment), Franz von Papen (Vice-Chancellor under Hitler, acquitted), Arthur Seyss-Inquart (Austrian Chancellor, Nazi Commissioner, hanged) and Joachim von Ribbentrop (Foreign Minister, hanged). It is a commonly known fact that Göring was not hanged as planned, but instead committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill smuggled into his cell. He was later quoted in his suicide notes that “being hanged is not appropriate for a man of [his] status”.
Dachau was a Nazi German concentration camp located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 miles) northwest of Munich in southern Germany. Opened on 22 March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist (Nazi) government. Heinrich Himmler, in his capacity as police president of Munich, officially described the camp as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners.”
buildings were developed by Kommandant Theodor Eicke and were applied to all later camps. He had a separate secure camp near the command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration, and army camps. Eicke himself became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for molding the others according to his model.
