Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas

Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas review

After many years of controversy, Peter Eisenmann's 'field of stelae' - 2,711 of them, arranged in undulating rows on 19,704 sq metres (212,000 sq ft) of city block - with its attendant information centre to memorialise the Murdered Jews of Europe, was opened in 2005. Each of the concrete slabs has its own foundation, and they tilt at differing angles. The effect is (no doubt deliberately) reminiscent of the packed headstones in Prague's Old Jewish Cemetery. There's no vantage point or overview; to engage with the thing you need to walk into it. It's spooky in places, especially on overcast days and near the middle of the monument, where many feel a sense of confinement. The information centre is at the south-east corner of the site, mostly underground. It's like a secular crypt, containing a sombre presentation of facts and figures about the Holocaust's Jewish victims.