Monday, September 1, 2008

Berlin 2008 - the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe/Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas

Holocaust Memorial is a huge (19'000 square meter) memorial in a center of Berlin dedicated to the memory of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It consists of 2'711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The stelae are 2.38m long and 0.95m wide and vary in height from 0.2 m to 4.8m. They are suppose to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and walking between them surely makes you feel uneasy. Interestingly, nowhere inside or around the memorial you can find information on what it commemorates. Apparently, this is a deliberate attempt to encourage visitors to reach their own conclusions.