I don't know why but I find it interesting to compare all the different ways that people come up with to remember, mark or commemorate all sorts of historical events, from the basic blue plaque on the wall to a huge, such as this World War One memorial in Nice.
This tiny picture really doesn't do it justice, this memorial is huge and craved into the side of a cliff. It's rather impressive.Now on to the subject of the post and that is Holocaust Memorials. These are some of the most interesting because of the total rarity that you get in them. Memorials to wars, in particular the First and Second World Wars almost all tend to follow the same pattern and the only thing that varies is the statue on top of the cenotaph and its size. Where as Holocaust Memorials are all different and I think really tell us about the communities/people that built them and how they think it should be best remembered.
This is because it is an event that nobody really knows best how to represent, for a town to represent its losses in a war is pretty straight forward, you need a list of names, dates ect. and a focus point to remember those people for their sacrifice. However with the holocaust, the memorials are not reflecting those who gave their lives for a greater good but instead about those who lost their lives to one of the darkest moments in history. So what's the best way to represent it? Some have gone for a the big in your face approach while others went for a more subtle approach. I'm going to go through some examples that we came across now to show you this difference.
Budapest
The shoes by the river.
This is a brilliant example of one of the approaches to a Holocaust Memorial, that is by representing one single event in the Holocaust. These shoes represent the victims of a shootings by Arrow Cross Party Militia in Budapest. It gets people interested because at first, if you don't know why it is there, you have no idea what it is there for but further investigation of the area will reveal a plaque informing you of its purpose.
This in turn leads to more discussion and research (well if you are a history geek like me) into the people behind the shootings and Hungary's role in the Second World War.
Raoul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Garden
This tree is the central focus of the garden. On every leaf is a name of someone who died during the Holocaust. The weeping willow tree, I feel, represents the sadness of the event extremely well. Even in this photo, I find it moving but maybe that is because it brings back the memory of seeing it in person. In a simple way they were able to represent the sadness and the scale of the Holocaust (there are alot of leaves)
Auschwitz
Now the whole camp is one big memorial to the Holocaust so before I go on to talk about the individual memorials there I'm going to take the time to discuss the place as a whole. Auschwitz I is basically Eden Camp for the Holocaust, it even sells rather inappropriate items at it's gift shop such as posters and postcards! The first part of the site is informative but never really moves over to moving apart from one part (I will discuss that part in a minute) This maybe because a percentage of the visitors seemed to be treating it as just another visit to a historical site, like a castle and not the representation of one of the greatest evils the world has ever known.
One the other hand Birkenau, is really moving, the site is huge and, partly due to the weather while I was there, it was almost empty of visitors. The two sites compliment each other well. I don't have any photos of these sites though as I didn't find it appropriate to take my camera with me. So the following photos are ones that I have nicked from google image search.
The Death Wall
This is truly moving, not even the happy snapping tourists could ruin the emotion that this site has. The wall where prisoners were shot for their crimes in the camp, for me represents the fact that even when people are at their lowest, there will always be those that resists and their resistance was for all those that couldn't. I will admit I was close to tears in front of this wall.
The International Memorial
I don't have a picture of this, as I couldn't find one on the internet that was small enough after a quick search. However you wouldn't want to see it anyway because it's rather ugly. It's like a Henry Moore sculpture on acid and then there is the stones that have a message written message on them in many different languages that talks about how this should be a lesson to humanity. This shows up how the international community has failed because genocides have continued, maybe not on the industrialised scale of the Holocaust but they have gone on never the less. It is just a reminder of how we have failed so many people.
Prague
Pinkas Synagogue
Once again no photos because you were not allowed to take photos inside the synagogue, however if you wish to see it a quick google imagine search will reveal it. However this is one of those places you really have to visit to understand the impact. This the names of the Jews of Prague and the surrendering areas are written on the wall of the synagogue, in every single room. Really there isn't much to say about it apart from the general feeling of shock you get when you see all these names, without memorials like this, the estimated 10 million people that died during the Holocaust would just be an unimaginable number, a statistic.
Munich
Once again I have to say sorry for not having any photos of these but I felt I had to mention them for their approach to the issue of Holocaust Memorials. They have a series of small memorials, many of which have no inscription and if they do, then it is only in German. The effect of this is that they may go missed by the average tourist, we only found out about a couple of them because we had a guided tour around Munich. They also represent events that happened in the city, from dodgers' alley to the two memorials to Sophie Scholl and the White Rose movement. They encourage discovery and learning and all have a very relative theme. They also represent how maybe it is time to put the Holocaust and the Second World War behind the country of Germany yet at the same time just have subtle reminders of these events which have scarred the country and its wonderful people.
Dresden
I don't know what it says but I imagine it is something to do with the train station been used to ship people to the concentration camps. Once again I feel it tells us something about the German feelings towards the remembrance of the Holocaust. By making it inaccessible to people who cannot read German, they are keeping the Holocaust as a solely German event reflecting their need to try and deal with their own history.Berlin
Now for the complete opposite of the memorials in Munich. This thing is huge and right next to the Reichstag (although it so has no markers on it to tell you what it is apart from the museum that is under it) Walking through it gives the experience of disorientation and confusion reflecting the issues that surround memorials to the
Holocaust. In this sense it is interactive that is certainly unique yet at the same time it fits in with Berlin. Although I prefer Munich's style, I can see how this works and why some people prefer this style.Here is a news story from the BBC when it was opened, explaining some of the problems that people have with it.
Hamburg
And finally we have my favorite memorial to the Holocaust that I came across. It shows the despair of the Holocaust in such a simple way and is surrounded by other memorials to war all of which are situated in the ruins of a church that was destroyed in the Second World War by the Allied bombing of Hamburg. There is emotion in this statue that is so pure and just sums everything up.
