A Revolution I Can Get Behind - Or, Novemeber 9, 1989 Celebrated

The reality on the ground is always more complicated than the emotion of the moment or of nostalgia of the moment can promise. Yes, in Germany unemployment is still very high, in some places in the East obscenely high. Yes, there is a burgeoning neo-Nazi movement in the East that comes from a people who, due to Soviet techniques and propaganda never confronted the Holocaust and therefor look nostalgically at Hitler. Yes, Germany is a real country with real problems and is by no means a paradise.

What it is, however, is a country where it is more safe than only a handful of other countries for Jews to live. What it is is a country that has tried to make Teshuva (Jewish concept of "returning" or even repentance) for its holocaust, unlike pretty much any nation that I can find in history has ever done. It seems most prefer to cover up or forget to mention their crimes in history.

What it is, is a country whose most recent revolution began with floods of people fleeing to Hungary and the Czech Republic to wind their way to the West, then peaceful demonstrations in Dresden and Leipzig, to finally an order from the DDR government easing travel restrictions to the West.

At 1:27 on the video above something special is captured -- the moment of the shift -- the tipping point -- the explosion of revolution in the cheers of Germans walking past the checkpoints that had been the last resting place of hundreds of unsuccessful attempts at flight. Guards had not been given orders on the new travel restriction changes, and simply did not know what to do with the masses lined up to cross over. . . revolution because of bureaucratic error and an unstoppable flood-- perhaps even a purity of nature that does exist in humanity. (Elohai Neshama shenatati bi tehora -- mein G-tt, die Seele, die du mir geschenkt has, ist rein -- My G-d, the soul that you have given me is pure.)