I must say I am quite disappointed by the new Holocaust Memorial inaugurated recently in Berlin. First, it is a bit sad that the only victims commemorated are the "murdered Jews" - there are so many left out, the political adversaries of the Nazis, the Gypsies, the homosexuals, so it feels incomplete and exclusivist.
Second, from an artistic point of view it is a disaster... I don't know what is the logic of memorial buildings, but I think an esthetic element should be at least partially considered (and they surely left that out for this monument!). I know that one is not supposed to feel elated at the sight of a monument erected in the memory of a barbarian event, but nevertheless one should not feel apalled by it - otherwise people would not want to look at it closely, they would be pushed away, rejected... Or maybe this is the point, that visitors should be disgusted by it?
Finally, the memorial is so ugly that it really spoils the central Berlin landscape. Could not have they made it something better? Something that would address the sad memories without being an eyesore?
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Anamaria, I share your feelings about the stark aesthetic of the memorial in Berlin. I think the reaction we are "supposed" to have is to be reminded about how gruesome and vile the Holocaust was, but those gray slabs are a bit over the top. Personally, when it comes to designing memorials, I advocate for a less-is-more approach. Remember the Holocaust Memorial in Boston? I thought that memorial related the essence about the numbers of those who perished without obliterating the surrounding landscape.
FYI, a swastika was recently drawn on one of the gray slabs. What century are we in again?
And yes, let us not forget the root of the Pink Triangle. If I remember correctly, there's a plaza in Amsterdam with a huge marble triangle that commemorates the gays who were killed during the Holocaust.
Seems as if the memorial is achieving its goal of making the people talk about it. :)
The fact that it's somehow ugly is more or less wanted by the creators I think. At least it's definitely not supposed to be 'nice'. And if it would perfectly fit into the surrounding landscape most people would probably walk by without taking notice of it.
The other thing, that it's only commemorating the jews, leaving out all the other groups having suffered under the Nazi regime, was heavily discussed here in Germany and I still didn't form a final opinion on it. In fact the jews were the ones who where most opposed to this idea, asking repeatedly for a more general aimed memorial. On the other hand the jews were by far hit hardest in world war 2 and therefore the Germans still feel some kind of guilt for them until today. So they built the memorial for them. There are hundreds of memorials for the holocaust as a whole, throughout the world as well as throughout Germany, but there are much less for the jews alone. ..but of course this very memorial, being of so much interest in the international media and having such a central prosition in Berlin, would have probably better been chosen to commemorate every victim of this war at all...
However, I haven't even been there so far (shame on me :) and will probably change my mind on it again then. We will see...
...is it possible that there's a problem with using HTML tags here?!
will try here:
hello hello
mmh - seems, as if only the i tag doesn't work..
Then, Roman, once you go there, please share your impressions, as it may provoke some different feelings if you are there in person.
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