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1
THE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL IN BERLIN AND ITS INFORMATION CENTER
Concepts, Controversies, Reactions
Sibylle Quack
On May 10, 2005, 60 years after the end of World War II, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and its underground information center officially opened in Berlin (see Figure 1.1). Located prominently in the center of Berlin close to the Brandenburg Gate and the Federal Parliament, the memorial has attracted millions of visitors from all over the world. The huge sculpture was designed by architect Peter Eisenman (originally conceptualized in cooperation with sculptor Richard Serra) and consists of a large field of 2711 greyish blue concrete slabs (or stelae) of different heights, some of them reaching up to 4.7 meters. It is accessible from all sides. The slabs are set at different angles and arranged in a grid pattern. They stand on uneven ground and in tight rows so that it is too narrow for two people to walk side by side between them. The deeper one gets inside, the more the noise of the surrounding city is muted. The memorial is rather abstract. It does not carry any information; it does not give a direction; and it leaves one alone with one’s feelings. Only the underground information center, which is located at the southeastern side of the Memorial and is not easily visible from above, provides a focus. Here, an exhibition of the Holocaust informs about its historical context, traces the personal stories of Holocaust victims from all over Europe, and tells the visitor what the memorial is about.
“The unforgettable and the memorable are not the same,” the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben pointed out in a chapter about the memorial in 2005. As he beautifully put it, the ensemble of the memorial with its underground center stands for two very heterogenic dimensions of memory: the visitor who walks through the memorial “step by step leaves behind the memory that can be recorded and archived, and enters the unforgettable.” The center underneath, which documents the history of the Holocaust, embodies the “memorable.” It is the “immaterial edge” between both levels which in the writer’s eyes is the essence of the site (Agamben 2005). This chapter will explore the special relationship between the memorial and the center, and include some of the reactions of visitors.
FIGURE 1.1 The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, facing the Tiergarten in the evening sun.
© Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, 2012.
The long process of debating and building the memorial was part of Germany’s attempt to come to terms with the country’s Nazi past. Discussions surrounding it intensified after Germany’s reunification and the reconstruction of Berlin as the capital of the reunited country. They took place against a backdrop of violent racist attacks against foreigners in the 1990s, including arson in several cities (Hoyerswerda, Rostock, Mölln, Solingen,