Memorial to Jews murdered during holocaust – A Site of Historical Importance in Berlin, Germany

Millions of Jews had been murdered during the holocaust and their death is an important lesson in history. Memorial to the murdered Jews of the Holocaust in Berlin makes sure this terrible tragedy is never forgotten. The Holocaust Memorial is built to commemorate the death of nearly six million people during the Nazi era.

The memorial was designed by Peter Eisman and it consists of a field of ‘Stelae’ or concrete slabs as well as an underground information centre. There are around 2711 such ‘Stelae’ designed in a grid like manner. The information centre is open every day except when it is closed for repairs therefore check out their website before choosing to visit it but the Field of Stelae can be accessed at anytime of the day or night. The timings depend on the season. Admission to the Information centre is free of cost but one is free to donate some money at the donation box which is used to run the place.

Besides a memorial for Jews, there is also a memorial for homosexuals near the Brandenburg Gate close to the Reichstag building. Nazis persecuted homosexuals like never before; a kiss between two men was considered a reason enough to prosecute them and offenders were often castrated and many were also send to concentration camps. Homosexuals continued to live in fear of prosecution under the Draconian Section 175 till 1969. There were around fifty thousand convictions during the Nazi regime under the aforementioned section. The memorial aims to honor the victims, keep the memory of the injustice alive and create a symbol of opposition against intolerance and exclusion of homosexuals from the society.

The information centre contains a room which provides the individual identities of those murdered in the holocaust. Instead of viewing Jews as a large mass of people who dies this gives the dead a name and individuality they are not treated just as a mass of nameless victims. The short biographies of the victims are played by the loudspeakers while the details of their lives are simultaneously projected on the walls of the room. It plays around seven hundred short biographies but this database is being expanded as new information about more vi.ctims is found.

Another room in the information centre provides on the places used to annihilate the victims. A series of short films are shown on concentration camps, ghettos as well as shooting sites. Besides well known concentration camps, one is also informed of lesser known sites of persecution, roughly 120 such sites have been found. The silent slide show of these sites allows one to understand to a certain degree the reign of terror that the Nazis had let loose.