to remember?

"Coming to terms with the past" is a recurring theme in germany. New questions keep presenting themselves. As Germany prepares for the move of the federal government, currently based in Bonn, to Berlin, the memorial has gained greater significance and urgency. As Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn said, Berlin was the capital of Germany for only 74 years, starting in 1866, and "in that short period saw four historical cataclysms: the end of monarchy, the short turbulent reign of the weimar republic, the rise and fall of national socialism, and finally the occupation of international socialism." During these 74 years, Germany started two world wars and killed nearly 50 million people. Thus, the choice of Berlin as the new capital of a unified, democratic germany was controversial, and the government is all the more determined to prove its choice. Creating a national Holocaust memorial was part of the plan, but they did not count on the controversy.
Das Denkmal fuer die ermodeten Juden Europas	What kind of memorial is appropriate in the land of the perpetrators? How should the capital of a democratic Germany memorialize the millions of European Jews the Nazis murdered during WWII? But why focus on a memorial when the real thing is so close?
For example, the Sachsenhausen camp is only a few miles north of Berlin, and in recent years they have had problems finding funding. The city itself also contains the ghetto where its Jewish citizens were confined before being taken off to be exterminated, and Wansee, the premises where the Final Solution was plannned, is in the vicinity. Everytime one goes to the railway station, one is reminded of the jews who left from there. One might even say that the whole of Germany is a memorial.
Timeline 1989: Talk show host Lea Rosh conceived of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial. 1994: First competition elicits 528 submissions. June 1995: Two winners announced: Christine Jackob-Marks and Simon Ungers. Jackob-Marks later names the grand prize winner. The Bus Stop proposal by Frieder Schnock and Renata Stih is the clear favorite at an exhibition of the design entries. July 1995: Controversy erupts over the Jackob-Marks design. 1997: Second competition held. Jewish Museum in Berlin, designed by Daniel Libeskind, nears completion.

by Meera Deean

Timeline