Thomil's Random Ramblings

May 2nd I’m not going to lie, I’m not really looking forward to this particular day. The aim is to head south to Speyer in order to visit the grave of my parents. I hadn’t been down there since that depressing grey day in January 2018, when I had laid my father to rest, that only happening four months after saying goodbye to my mother for the last time. So yeah, this is not going to be an easy trip, not by a long shot. But I owe it to them, especially after nearly six years! Thankfully, the day starts nice and calm, as the hotel is nowhere near as busy as it was on the previous day, and breakfast is a decidedly relaxed affair. Getting to the station is equally relaxed, as the “siege” of the city had been lifted overnight, so trams are operating as normal. The fun starts at Frankfurt Central Station, where getting a ticket turns into a bit of a guessing game as massive queues stretch through the entire station concourse. The reason soon becomes apparent, as May 2nd turns out to be the s...

This week brings with it a rather poignant and sombre anniversary. January 27th 2020 marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz. While it likely didn’t register for many if not most people in the western world, who went  about their daily lives like on any other day, it is still a potent reminder of the savagery that humanity is capable of, and a demonstration of just how thin the veneer of civilisation still is. For modern Germans like me, Auschwitz, the Holocaust, the Second World War, and the Nazi era in general have been more or less constant “companions” for a lack of a better word since our school days. The phrase “Nie wieder” or “Never Again” has been seared into our national consciousness to a degree seemingly not present anywhere else. Flag-waving patriotism or military bravado are alien to the point of being incomprehensible for many people of my generation, and the memory of what happened appears to be omnipresent. As a nation...