Holocaust Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial (official name: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) in Berlin is a monument commemorating the persecution of Jews during World War II. It consists of 2,711 concrete blocks varying in height from 20 cm to 4.5 meters with a spacing of 95 cm. Beneath the field of blocks is an exhibition space. The American architect Peter Eisenman designed the monument. According to him, the field of undulating blocks evokes a sense of disorientation and isolation and is symbolic of the experiences of the Jewish population during the Nazi regime.

The motto of the monument is a quote from the Italian writer Primo Levi, a survivor of the Auschwitz extermination camp: 'It happened, and therefore it can happen again. That is the core of what we have to say.'

The concrete blocks have been sprayed (coated) with a special chemical layer that makes graffiti easy to remove. The manufacturer of the anti-graffiti layer is the pharmaceutical company Degussa, which during the Holocaust was part-owner of the company that produced Zyklon B for the Third Reich. The construction of the Holocaust Memorial was briefly interrupted by this old news, but after an investigation, it was decided that the company had sufficiently distanced itself from its past.

The monument was inaugurated on May 10, 2005.

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Timour