Berlin's Jewish Memorial: Compelling and Controversial

One major area in the city center of Berlin is dedicated to the memorial to the Jews killed in the Holocaust. The memorial was designed by Peter Eisenman and continues to be a topic of controversy to this day. The memorial was completed in 1999 and is a series 2,711 gray stone slabs that create an imposing maze for people to go through. The stones get taller and taller towards the middle of the more than 200,000 square feet that the memorial occupies. The “meaning” of the memorial is very ambiguous; Eisenman wanted to create something that would give people a feeling of “groundlessness and instability” but also wanted everyone to take away what they needed to take away from it. He definitely succeeded; the memorial is very unsettling, especially at night, where it almost feels like a scene from “The Shining” or something.

The controversy behind the memorial comes into the fact that it is only for the Jews killed in the Holocaust. The exact numbers of individuals killed is impossible to calculate, but it is estimated that at least 5-6 million Jews were killed as well as at least 5-6 million non-Jews, which includes Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally/physically handicapped, prisoners of war, and other civilians. There are memorials for some other groups of people killed in the Holocaust, but they are minimal, and in some ways pathetic compared to the Jewish Memorial. The memorial to homosexuals killed is across the street from the Jewish Memorial and consists of a box, maybe the size of a street kiosk, with a window, through which one can view a 24-hour soft-core gay kiss… enough said?

One thing I was absolutely shocked to learn about during my education about the Jewish Memorial and the Holocaust in general while in Berlin was the role that major business corporations played in the Holocaust. It was not so surprising to me to learn about German companies and other European businesses’ involvement and contribution to the Holocaust, but I guess being American, I was shocked to learn of American involvement. For example, did you know that IBM created the coding system that was used for identifying prisoners via serial number tattoos? Call me ignorant, but I certainly did not.