Holocaust Memorial Germany

Legendary

A memorial dedicated to the more than 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Photo by Eric Titcombe

There are no names carved here. No statues, no explanations, no Star of David.

Just 2,711 grey concrete blocks, arranged in rows across a field the size of two and a half football pitches. The architect wanted people to feel something rather than read something.

Walk in from the edge and the blocks are ankle-height. Keep going and the ground drops away beneath you while the blocks rise, until they're towering overhead.

The paths are narrow, wide enough for one person. The traffic noise fades, and it's easy to lose sight of anyone you came with.

The memorial stands in the middle of Berlin, one block from the Brandenburg Gate. It honors the up to six million Jewish people murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The idea began in 1988, proposed by a journalist named Lea Rosh. Germany then argued about it for seventeen years.

People disagreed about where to put it, what it should look like, and who it should remember. Two design competitions were held before anything was settled.

Parliament finally approved a design by American architect Peter Eisenman in 1999. Building started in 2003, and the last block was placed in December 2004.

The memorial was inaugurated on 10 May 2005, sixty years after the end of the Second World War. Holocaust survivors spoke at the ceremony.

Underneath the field is an information centre, and that's where the names are. It holds records of Jewish victims gathered from Yad Vashem in Israel.

One room reads the names aloud. Reading every one would take several years.

Walk into the middle of the field rather than viewing it from the edge, since the experience only makes sense from inside. Go down to the information centre afterward for the human stories behind the numbers. Visit early or late in the day, when the field is quietest.