Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker We have the address for the funeral home & the family on file If you're not happy with your card we'll send a replacement or refund your money Gerald Francis Beelitz created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories © 2025 Northside Chapel Funeral Directors and Crematory Made with love by funeralOne Not far from Berlin stands a 121-year-old hospital that has been abandoned for 25 years The Beelitz Heilstätten complex in Beelitz was once the largest treatment center in the world for lung diseases like tuberculosis The complex served again as a military hospital during World War II, and was then occupied by the Soviet military for 50 years. The Soviets abandoned the site in 1995 and although select sections of the hospital are now used for research and rehabilitation most of the complex has remained virtually untouched for nearly 25 years As a photographer with a focus on abandoned buildings and a passion for history I traveled to Beelitz to photograph the abandoned hospital complex in 2014 and 2018 Here's what Beelitz Heilstätten looks like today Source: Atlas Obscura As Rutgers University first-year students unloaded their family cars Wednesday morning these were some of the elements of home they said they would miss most But the list of what they were excited about was endless: freedom and independence About 500 freshmen moved into the Honors College a sliver of the record-breaking 7,150 projected freshmen attending the New Brunswick campus this year That’s 150 more first-year students than last year’s group — which itself was a record the university will welcome 11,150 first-year students across all its campuses by Sept making the Class of 2023 the largest in the university’s 253-year history About 21 percent of first-year students are first-generation college students The students come from all 50 states and 125 countries New Jersey residents make up 80 percent of the incoming class “Our back-to-back record-breaking years in incoming students’ class size and academic prowess reflects Rutgers’ status as one of America’s leading public research institutions and the most diverse university in the Big Ten Academic Alliance,” New Brunswick Chancellor Christopher J the New Brunswick campus will see a projected 2,400 new transfer students Some students said the university's large size “The nice thing about Rutgers is that it’s so large and there’s always something to do,” said Sean Beelitz “Coming from a relatively small town I think it’ll be nice to have all these opportunities — and I don’t think I’ll ever get bored.” Beelitz said he made new friends during orientation And the idea of leaving his family for the first time made him — and his mom Football: An inside look at how Rutgers is re-enacting the first college football game 150 years ago Financial aid: NJ gave more than $3.8 million in financial aid to undocumented college students last year “I know it’s time for him to get off on his own without me telling him what to do, but it’s hard,” Erin Beelitz said through tears. “But I’m excited for him to experience the city feel here in New Brunswick and all the activities going on. "Leaving him today will be the hardest,” she said, echoing the words of parents dropping off college freshmen at campuses throughout the state and across the country this week. Rutgers parents said they felt a mixture of pride, sadness and excitement. University leaders also felt pride about the incoming class: The group's mean SAT score of 1318 is the highest in Rutgers' history, exceeding last year's record of 1299. "It's our largest and most distinguished class, academically speaking," Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Salvador Mena said as he helped students move in. "We're a community of 50,000 students, but we try to give every student that special one-on-one attention," he said. "We tell them to start living your dream from Day One on campus — this is about pursuing your goals and aspirations, and we’re here to help them achieve that." Mena is the chief student advocate, and encouraged students to reach out to him with concerns or questions about their time on campus.  The New Brunswick campus will have new features this year, including a taco food truck that will be making rounds daily across campuses. There will be a smoothie bar on the Busch campus, and a new student lounge on Livingston Campus with rooms for meditation and lactation. The move-in process Wednesday ran like a well-oiled machine, as plenty of student volunteers helped families unload their cars, pack items into rolling bins and push them right into the students' rooms.  “The organization helped us be in the moment without stressing too much about rushing to get everything out,” said parent Harpeet Malhi of Marlboro. Malhi’s daughter, Zoya Pandher, was already off enjoying her new dorm room by mid-morning. Financial aid packages, science programs with good reputations and proximity to home were among the other reasons students said they picked Rutgers. "Biochemistry is really strong here, so I thought that’d be really cool to experience," said Julianna Tin of Arlington, Virginia. "I'm most excited about meeting my professors and getting to see what laboratory work and research is like." About 20 percent of first-year students on the New Brunswick campus are out-of-state and international students. Third-year student Jorden Xavier was among the volunteers helping students move in on Wednesday. His hometown is just a couple of miles down the road in South Brunswick. "I know especially today it can be very exciting and nerve-racking at the same time for the freshmen, so I just want to help make them feel comfortable and like this is their home," said Xavier, a a biomedical engineering major and lead mentor at the Honors College. Xavier said his best advice to the incoming class was to "stay true to yourself." "It can be very difficult at times just seeing a whole bunch of different people come in from different backgrounds and stories, and you might feel a lot of pressure to perform, especially within an academically competitive environment such as the Honors College," he said. "But just rely on your strengths and focus on building your own unique weaknesses, and you should be good to go." Catherine Carrera covers Rutgers University and higher education trends. Write to her at carrera@northjersey.com. Follow her on Twitter @CattCarrera. Beelitz is known for one thing and one thing only: asparagus. This is the story of how a vegetable came to shape the economic and cultural identity of a small German town. disused hospitals: For some they are eyesores Image: Juergen Schwenkenbecher/picture allianceDwasieden Castle SassnitzOnly ruins remain of banker Adolph von Hansemann's magnificent building on Rügen Island just off the Baltic Sea coast the castle was one of the most expensive of its time a refugee and quarantine camp was located here until it was blown up in 1948 to make bricks This complex played a role in the Nazis' mass murder of hundreds of thousands of disabled persons physically or mentally ill children and adults for racist reasons The Nazis used the site as a transit station before sending people to their deaths The building has fallen into disrepair over the decades The Hohenschönhausen prison was a place of horror Prisoners of East Germany’s secret police were forced to live in 60 windowless cells in the basement each only equipped with a wooden cot and a bucket Over 20,000 political prisoners were mentally and physically tortured here and some of its tour guides were actually held as prisoners here From the east of Berlin to the west: On top of Teufelsberg hill is the US military’s former listening station with five radar domes The hill itself was artificially created with rubble from World War II and is the second-highest spot in Berlin The area is now used for cultural events and offers plenty of space for graffiti artists Hollywood stars George Clooney and Matt Damon have already visited this spot but not for health reasons The site was a location for their movie "The Monuments Men." Since 2005 an association has been campaigning for the reconstruction of the sanatorium which was founded in 1896 by the German Red Cross "Das Alpenhaus" is part of the 60-building group that formed a clinic for tuberculosis patients in Brandenburg Some of the other buildings have been refurbished and converted into apartments An approximately11 kilometer (6.8 miles) circular route leads through the former military site which was created in 1910 as an imperial military training area the Soviets set up their high command here until they withdrew in 1994 Many people take part in bunker tours in Wünsdorf every year The coal and steel industry shaped the Ruhr region for over 150 years nature is reclaiming industrial sites such as the Hansa coking plant in Dortmund and the Zollverein colliery in Essen it is not quiet here: Exhibitions and guided tours bring these lost places to life