6 Postcards
A haunting maze of 2,710 columns, this Berlin memorial invites deep reflection on loss, echoing the somber history it powerfully represents.
"A short walk from Brandenburg Gate, this sprawling, maze-like set of 2,711 concrete columns is a haunting reminder of the atrocities and toll of World War II and Germany’s main memorial to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Officially called the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the site occupies an entire 205,000-square-foot city block and was designed by American architect Peter Eisenman after an exhaustive 17-year planning process. The memorial’s abstract design offers no explanation or prescribed walking path, but simply invites visitors to enter and become swallowed in its tomb-like slabs." - Krystin Arneson, Liz Humphreys
"Set right in the middle of the city, between the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, the sprawling Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (more generally known as the Holocaust Memorial) was opened in 2006. Designed by New York architect Peter Eisenman, it features almost 3,000 grey pillars (stele) of differing heights; walking between is intended to give a sense of confusion and solitude, though it’s not unusual to see kids playing hide and seek and teens eating their Burger King on top of them. The underground information center is more poignant, presenting images, personal belongings, and stories from some of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Nearby you can also find the small Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism and the larger Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism." - MATADOR_NETWORK
"Denkmal für die Ermordeten Juden Europas | Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Occupying a prominent space between Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, this memorial (also known as the Holocaust-Mahnmal, or Holocaust Memorial) has almost 3,000 gray oblong pillars (stelae), arranged at varying heights, that form a kind of labyrinth intended to reference the disorientation felt by Europe’s hunted Jewish population. Designed by New York architect Peter Eisenman, it opened in 2005. The effectiveness of the labyrinth is arguable; you may see groups of teenagers playing tag and picnicking on and among the blocks. However, there’s no denying the power of the site’s underground information center, which relates some of the life stories of Holocaust victims. Several other smaller but related memorials are nearby, dedicated to homosexuals, gypsies, and victims of National Socialist euthanasia killings."
"Denkmal für die Ermordeten Juden Europas | Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Occupying a prominent space between Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, this memorial (also known as the Holocaust-Mahnmal, or Holocaust Memorial) has almost 3,000 gray oblong pillars (stelae), arranged at varying heights, that form a kind of labyrinth intended to reference the disorientation felt by Europe’s hunted Jewish population. Designed by New York architect Peter Eisenman, it opened in 2005. The effectiveness of the labyrinth is arguable; you may see groups of teenagers playing tag and picnicking on and among the blocks. However, there’s no denying the power of the site’s underground information center, which relates some of the life stories of Holocaust victims. Several other smaller but related memorials are nearby, dedicated to homosexuals, gypsies, and victims of National Socialist euthanasia killings."
"Denkmal für die Ermordeten Juden Europas | Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Occupying a prominent space between Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, this memorial (also known as the Holocaust-Mahnmal, or Holocaust Memorial) has almost 3,000 gray oblong pillars (stelae), arranged at varying heights, that form a kind of labyrinth intended to reference the disorientation felt by Europe’s hunted Jewish population. Designed by New York architect Peter Eisenman, it opened in 2005. The effectiveness of the labyrinth is arguable; you may see groups of teenagers playing tag and picnicking on and among the blocks. However, there’s no denying the power of the site’s underground information center, which relates some of the life stories of Holocaust victims. Several other smaller but related memorials are nearby, dedicated to homosexuals, gypsies, and victims of National Socialist euthanasia killings."
