Carli Maddock - Second Reflection

The island of Rhodes was quite remarkable. I am slightly biased, considering my presentation subject is a large part of our port city, Rhodes. However, there was a lot of history that I was unaware of. As an active member of the Jewish community, it is never easy to visit locations where the population has changed so drastically as a result of World War II. Learning about the impact of the many wars throughout history on this island that felt to be in the middle of nowhere was unexpected, to say the least. I never knew that the Nazis got down as far as the islands of Greece, and I never knew that the French had once occupied the area either. Another intriguing part of the history of Rhodes was the different perspectives that the different groups had on the historical landmarks of previous years. For example, the Ottoman Empire used the Palace of the Grandmaster for prisoners and goods. This caused the palace to fall into bad shape due to the lack of reconstruction after the earthquake beforehand. On the other hand, Mussolini was thrilled to use the palace as a vacation spot after restoring the parts in ill condition. The same can be said about the statue outside of the other acropolis we visited on the island. The bronze statue that stood at the bottom of the staircase was once, and is now seen as an ancient treasure. Those that melted it down most likely did not feel the same way. I think a lot of history has been lost due to the lack of care for these historic masterpieces,although sometimes necessarily recycled. I do feel lucky to have still been able to see so much today. A lot of the world has already been forgotten.