The memorial itself is quite stark, and doesn't look like much, but our guide, who was awesome, explained about what the artist wanted it to mean, and why that location and all.
It's in the center of the financial, business and government districts, so that with one glabce, they can be reminded about what happens when too much power is put in one persons hands.
The blocks are uneven, so that you're eyes are constantly unsettled, and the ground is uneven so that when yu walk through it, you get disoriented a little bit.
The meaning of the blocks themselves are up for interpretation. I personally felt they represented the bunkers the Holocaust victims were kept in, and that their layout is meant to be creepy (never know what's around the corner until too late, can't see the sky, easily lost) and incredibly claustrophobic, like the feeling the victims had. But that's just me...
The museum itself was quite intense. I had been to one in London previously, but it still affects you deeply to go. It moves from hard numbers and facts, almost told like a photojournal, into personal letters written by various people sent to the death camps. I can't even imagine having to write letters like those-it was very disturbing. How do you tell your family that you're going to die and that you'll never see them again? How do you tell a loved one that you're sorry you can't ever give them another hug? How do write something like that? Absolutely heartbreaking.
I think everyone should visit a Holocaust Memorial at some point in their lives. It has a lasting affect. And I think it's very good that Germany did that here-they accept their past, and don't shy away from it. Although you can be arrested for doing the Nazi salute or drawing the swastika or many other things.
All in all, an excellent experience. Difficult, sad, terrifying, but well worth it.
I don't know if you know it or not, but we have relatives who had numbers tattoo'd on their arms. It felt like getting hollowed out when I saw those tats. Pam, eure Schwester.
ReplyDelete