Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - Berlin, Germany - The Holocaust on Waymarking.com

We have tried to capture the atmosphere of the memorial in pictures but like many other photographers before, we soon realized that this is an impossible task. Looking at the pictures might make one wonder about the meaning of the memorial and there was indeed a heated debate in Germany weather this really is the right way to commemorate the biggest crime ever done by one nation to another. but we can testify that it all comes clear once one walks through the field. It is designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, representing a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason and it absolutely does just that!

That's why we only took one picture inside (image to the right).

Here is a tour of the other rooms, pictures and text both taken from the Information Center's official flyer.

A tour through the Information Centre starts by surveying the Nazis’ extermination policy between 1933 and 1945. A series of texts and pictures shows the development that led to the Holocaust and the process of the extermination of the European Jewry, as well as the persecution and murder of other victims groups.

Different social, national and religious Jewish milieus are shown in this room, based on the fates of fifteen Jewish families. The stories of these Jewish families reflect the diversity of European Jewish culture and tradition before the Holocaust.

This room documents the geographic spread of the genocide of the Jews across Europe. 220 sites are presented as examples of sites where European Jews were persecuted and exterminated using historical film and photographic material.

In this room, names and short biographies of Jews across Europe who were murdered or presumed dead are read out. At the same time, the name, year of birth and year of death of the victims appear on all four walls.

The Israeli memorial site Yad Vashem shared its database with the Berlin Memorial to make the "Room of Names" possible. We think this is an amazing act of reconciliation and forgiveness by the Jewish people!

A Personal Note at the End:

So far, I have created more than 500 waymarks, but this one was the hardest one I ever did. I was born and raised in Germany; I actually grew up in walking distance to the former concentration camp of Sachsenhausen.

I am a member of Germany's first post-war generation, a generation that isn't personally guilty of those atrocities but still has a very special responsibility. When German Prime Minister Helmut Kohl visited Israel in 1984, he started his speech in the Knesset with the following words:

"I am standing here as someone who doesn't have to bear the blame for Nazi-Germany because he was given the mercy of a late birth and a special upbringing."

I was raised being aware of the responsibility of keeping the memory of six million innocent people alive and I hope this waymark is a little tribute to that!