Berlin
Holocaust Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe consists of a Field of
Stelae. A three dimensional installation consisting of 19,000 meters of 2,711
concrete slabs in different heights through which a network of paths cross.
When I
found myself flying to Berlin on the Holocaust Memorial Day, I had mixed
emotions. As a Jew, this country has such difficult history. On the other hand,
coming there as tourists symbols survival and victory of life. I took advantage
of the occasion to visit the Holocaust Memorial that was on my wish list for
quite a while.
The
Berlin Holocaust Memorial was inaugurated on May 10, 2005 for the memory of the
murdered Jews of Europe. The Memorial is located between Brandenburg Gate and
Potsdamer Platz. Considering its scale, it cannot be missed or ignored. It
spans over 19,000 square meters, and is comprised of 2,711 slabs of 2.38X0.95
meters with varying heights between 20 centimeters to 4.80 meters on uneven
ground. On first sight, the lower sized slabs reminded me gravestones in
graveyards, but the highest slabs don’t give this feeling. It is more like a
maze of slabs with some of are almost 5 meters high.
The
Berlin Holocaust Memorial was designed by Peter Eisenman, a Jewish-American
architect, whose design won the site’s design competition. There is no written
information about the purpose of the slabs and their organization, what I could
find when searching for information is based on the text that Eisenman wrote
when he submitted the proposal – it’s purpose is to form a sensation discomfort
and confusion among the visitors, to emphasize the contrast between the
organized system that lost human reason.
The
Memorial is integrated into the city of Berlin. If you walk down Ebertstraße
between Brandenburg Gate and Postdamer Platz you’ll see it ‘touching’ the
pavement. Pedestrians and tourists sit on the slabs, resting from their walks
and get impressed from the Memorial. Children (and adults) are walking and
running around the slabs investigating different angles of it.
Information:
The
memorial is open to the streets and is not fenced. Entrance is free anytime.
Entrance
is by foot and there are 13 accessible paths.
Under
the memorial there’s a museum including an exhibition, the (known) names of the
victims, and an information center.
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