Our second port of call on the Danube cruise was Bratislava, Slovakia.

For some reason I saw Bratislava in mostly black and white. Maybe it was the gray day, or perhaps the moving holocaust memorial, constructed to remember the 105,000 jews from Slovakia that the Nazis executed.

Around this leg of the trip I learned the phrase, "what the Nazis started, the soviets finished". In 1969 the last synagogue in Bratislava was demolished.

In 1996 the Bratislava holocaust memorial was constructed. This statue has a black wall etched with the silhouette of the destroyed synagogue. An abstract center to the sculpture is topped by a Star of David. The black granite platform is inscribed with the words “Zachor” [“Remember” in Hebrew] and “Pamätaj” [“Remember” in Slovak].

Will people remember? I'm not sure remembering is even the question. Are the true lessons and root cause understood? I wonder if the human animal will evolve quickly enough to transcend hatred, bigotry, oppression, self-serving authoritarianism, and lack of compassion. And if the lessons of history are never internalized by people, then what's to remember?

Bratislava is often thought of as a good tourist's day-trip from Vienna ... a spot with bars, nightlife, and a cool castle.

Bratislava is much more than that.