> Supporting initiative Memorial for the murdered Jews in Europe

In 1988 the citizen’s initiative "Perspektive Berlin" triggered the vision of building a memorial to commemorate the millionfold murder of European Jews. This memorial should honour the victims and give them back their names.

First and foremost well-known supporter, Willy Brandt, wasacquired. He also coined the guideline "Unsere Würde gebietet einen unübersehbaren Ausdruck der Erinnerung an die Ermordung der europäischen Juden". [Our dignity demands a highly visible expression on the commemoration on the homicide of the European Jews].
On July 12th 1999 the German Bundestag passed an adjudication on the construction of the memorial.

The concept chosen by the German Bundestag was named “Eisenman II”.
2.711 steles arranged on an irregular descending area with a surface area about 19.000 square meters. The area is completely walkable and accessible from all sides. The most remarkable thing about the memorial is that the visitors experience the area in a completely different way when they change their positions.

On January 27th 2000, the construction sign was disclosed and the building work began.
The idea behind the concept developed by Richard Serra and Peter Eisenman was that the memorial has no destination, no end and no certain way in or out. The visitor is pressured by the steles and alienated. He has to decide on his own how deep he wants to go into the area and the interconnected commemoration. It’s impossible to realize the complete dimension of the area – a metaphor for the incognizable dimension of the millionfold homicide of the Jews.

Information Centre

The memorial is completed with an information centre which is located subterraneously in the south-eastern corner of the steles field. It’s accessible by two staircases and an elevator. The information centre impresses with its architecture. On over 800 square meters presentation space in partially daylight-flushed rooms, the visitors are informed about the disfranchisement, the persecution and the assassination on the European Jews as well as about the authentic places where the homicides were carried out.

This place also tackles the question of the ancestry of the Holocaust victims and tries to procure the expansion of the assassinations all over Europe.

The central function of this place is to unite the abstract form which is imparted by the memorial and the given information about the victims. Therefore the intention is to remember as many of the victims as possible and to personalize the place by pointing out several family histories and life stories.

Room of the names and the campaign 60*6000

A further concern is to give the dead back their identity and the dignity taken by the Nazis.
The goal of the campaign “60*6000” is to find 6000 supporters for the compilation of further biographies in the “room of the names” inside the memorial. The cost of one biography is, on average, about €60.
This includes the costs of historical research, the editorial refurbishment, the writing of the texts for the narrators and the recording in broadcasting corporations. The audio-visual conversion takes place in the studios of ARD, ZDF and RBB that are provided free of charge.
These costs are not included in the budget. That’s why the supporting initiative Memorial for the murdered Jews in Europe is searching for supporters of the campaign 60*6000.

More rooms inside the information centre:

Room of dimension
Room of families
Room of places

> Contact information about the Supporting initiative Memorial for the murdered Jews in Europe

Email und Phone:

info@holocaust-denkmal-berlin.de
Tel.: +49 (0) 30 28 04 59 - 60
Fax : +49 (0) 30 28 04 59 - 63

Website:

www.holocaust-denkmal-berlin.de

Address:

Förderkreis Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas e.V., Gormannstraße 14, 10119 Berlin, Germany

Verantwortlich: Prof. Lea Rosh