CONTEXT: This was taken during my 2016 visit to Berlin, a vast capital city whose center had to be nearly annihilated to destroy Nazism during World War II. Thus, little of pre-war Berlin remains; almost all buildings in the city center now date from after the wreckage of the bombing and Soviet invasion were cleared, after 1945. But this structure was deliberately left in ruins, lest Germans ever forget how their country had to be pummeled to defeat Hitler, the evil genius they had empowered, or merely tolerated.

Berlin was the historic pivot of my visit to Europe because of its Nazi past so I wrote an especially extensive Overview (mentioned below) about the city for my photos from there, which I may repost here later.

These are the gouges I mentioned at the end of my initial Overview of visiting Berlin, saying that, to me, they suggested wailing, howling mouths – especially in view of where they are, how they got there, and the grim reminders as which they serve forever, for Germany and the world. 

I haven’t titled any of my travel pictures up to now, but felt this one deserved a name because of its powerful imagery.  I considered calling it “The Wailing Wall,” but given the Nazi context, feared that might offend Jewish sensibilities.  So instead, I sought a name from a different source, and summoned a word from my high school Latin: “Peccavimus.” 

“We Have Sinned.”