By Kayden Habron

Last night, some of us went out clubbing to explore the night scene of Berlin and the rest of us went to sleep to rest our jet-lagged and emotionally exhausted bodies. Regardless of what we did last night after our day at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, we were all still somewhat tired this morning when we met in the hotel’s lobby.

Our fearless instructors took us on the bus to Nollendorfplatz, which was the older gay neighborhood of Berlin and is now still a gay neighborhood with many bars that are labelled “For Men Only” or are specifically for those with fetishes, like leather. The first place we went was to a monument for the homosexual victims of the Holocaust.

It was at the monument that we met our companions of the afternoon, Sisters Suzette and Aura from the Berlin Order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were founded to spread joy and to reduce stigmatization in the queer population. Berlin’s chapter was founded in 1993 when a Sister from another chapter in Germany moved to Berlin, and they estimate that they currently have 14 sisters and guards in their chapter alone. The Sisters participate in a wide variety of events to spread sex positivity and raise money for different causes. They do bar crawls where they hand out condoms and flyers, walk in pride parades, and attend benefits. Recently, the Berlin chapter attended a protest for marriage for all in Germany because people of the same sex are only allowed to have civil partnerships. In the last year, they donated 17,000 euros, mainly to organizations that are related to HIV and AIDS.

Sisters Suzette and Aura took us on a tour of Nollendorfplatz, past leather shops, rubber shops, queer bookstores, and the famous Eldorado nightclub that is now a supermarket. The Eldorado was under surveillance in the late 1930s and was used to round up homosexuals for violating Paragraph 175.

Many of us went to an ice cream shop for a lunch snack and the flavors were very different from the ones offered in the United States. I had some wonderful honey and sesame ice cream, but some other options were pear, banana and chocolate chips, as well as white chocolate and pumpkin seed.

We went to the AIDS memorial in Nollendorfplatz where we picked up litter that had been blown onto the memorial and participated in a ritual with the Sisters to remember those who lost their lives due to complications related to AIDS. Then we helped the Sisters move into their new archives space. We split into three groups: a cleaning group that prepared the new space for the archives, a moving group that helped move the archives from Sister Suzette’s apartment, and a cataloging group that helped Sister Aura create a list of what was in the archives.

Halfway through, our instructors went to a local supermarket to get lunch meat, “American sandwich bread,” cheese, cookies, potato chips, and bottles of still water for our lunch and we took shifts eating and helping the Sisters.

Outside of the Sisters’ building, we found Stumbling Stones from a family that was deported from Berlin to the concentration camps. Stumbling Stones are found throughout Europe outside of the residences of victims of the Holocaust to remember them.

After we bid our farewells to Sisters Suzette and Aura, we went to Humboldt University to listen to Kama La Mackerel, a trans and queer person of color, discuss “Not Your 101: Gender History is Colonial History,” and two things really resonated with me when she was speaking. First of all, she said that gender is a kaleidoscope, and as someone who identifies as transgender, I’ve often though that gender is not necessarily a spectrum as many people have tried to explain. Second, she said that as people with privilege, we need to “take the voices from the margins and center them.” One of my organizations tries very hard to include people with varying physical abilities when we host events, but it’s difficult to not only find places that are accessible on Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus because of the campus’ long history and older buildings but to find places that are easily accessible. It’s important to try to include people whose voices may not normally be heard or who may not be able to attend events because of their identities. I think it’s important that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence seemed to recognize this in their commitment to accepting people of all backgrounds and identities in their organization. Though I’ve enjoyed our time in Berlin, I’m excited to see what tomorrow holds as we journey to Paris, France.