Holocaust Memorial

There are places that we visit, and then there are places we enter. This memorial in Berlin is one of those places.

From a distance, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, appears like a vast field of concrete blocks stretching across the city near the Brandenburg Gate. But as we walk into it, the ground slopes downward and the slabs grow taller. What begins as open space, slowly narrows and you feel smaller and enclosed. This is not a monument you simply look at, but one that you walk through.

Designed by architect Peter Eisenman and opened in 2005, the memorial contains 2,711 concrete pillars arranged in a rigid grid. There are no inscriptions on the blocks themselves, no names and no dates. This abstraction is intentional. It is meant to evoke the unsettling anonymity of mass loss.  

Germany’s decision to place this memorial in the heart of the capital is significant. It is not hidden but stands in the center of national memory. Here history is being taught through experience – it is felt.