The Holocaust Memorial

At the entrance to each death camp, there was a process of Selektion or selection. Pregnant women, small children, the sick or handicapped, and the elderly were immediately condemned to death. As horrific as it was, it didn’t surprise many that Hitler had the audacity to do these terrible things. The Holocaust was an act of genocide in which Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany killed about two thirds of the population of Jews in Europe from 1941-1945 but the trouble started brewing much before that. Though there were only a small amount of survivors, very few alive to this day, there are many pieces of literature that help prove that this in fact happened. Literature can help us remember and honor the victims of the Holocaust because, it gives different

3. I stood in the boxcar for a couple of seconds, and I looked at the scuffed floor, where the paint was worn down to the wood, and I could really picture all of those people being crammed into the boxcar and sent to their deaths.

There are also monuments that are more salient and mention the concentration camps that the individuals survived (Appendix B, Figure 2). The community purposefully includes monument inscriptions to show an individual’s connection to the Holocaust. This action creates tribute to those who were victims of the Holocaust. This practice also creates a collaborative means for the community to mourn over these survivors.

There are various ways to commemorate a person or an event. The commemoration could either be a picture, a book, a special day, or a monument. Monuments are created to honor a famous person or a historic event. But before state/federal agencies or local communities start building a monument, there are some factors they should take into consideration. Including; the location, the cost, historical background, nature, and the significance of the monument, as well as the community’s perception about the monument.

1945. The end of the Holocaust. Total death: 6 million Jews. As tragic as it was, there was only one person behind it all; Adolf Hitler. Hitler, the dictator during the time, managed to transform peaceful and normal people into extreme haters towards the Jews. 158 years earlier, a man had introduced ideas that could have prevented these 6 million Jews from dying. That man was James Madison, also known as the Father of the US Constitution. In Philadelphia’s summer heat of 1787, James Madison along with 55 other delegates attended to what is now known as the Constitutional Convention. The meeting was held to discuss their loose federal government, or known as The Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was a failure as it was too weak to unite a whole nation. The delegates thought that they must frame, or build a new government soon to be called the Constitution. The delegates were cautious about avoiding tyranny, or when harsh and absolute power gets in the hands of one or a group of individuals. The Constitution guarded the nation against tyranny through federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and small/large state compromises.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website, a total of about nine million Jews lived in the countries that would soon be occupied by Germany during World War II. The largest Jew population in 1933 was in Eastern Europe. Poland had the largest population in that region. It had about 3,000,000 Jews. In prewar Central Europe, the largest Jewish community was in Germany. There was about 525,000 members. The largest Jewish community in Western Europe was in Great Britain. Great Britain had about 300,000 Jews. There was also significant Jewish communities in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia is located in Southern Europe. (www.ushmm.org)

Located at the top of the Tiergarten and one block south of Brandenburg gate, lies the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe also known as the Holocaust Memorial. Designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold, the structure spans 4.7 acres and consists of 2,711 concrete pillars arranged in rows, and at different heights to create a wave pattern.

One day my dad and i went to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, Israel. We went everywhere except from the place where was children under 14 years old were not allowed. My dad said that this place would be shocking but i thought we should still go. Why did he think it was shocking? Well, because millions of women, children, and men were brutally killed during the Holocaust.

Memorialization of any sort can be a tedious process, but those regarding Holocaust remembrance were particularly challenging given the surrounding social and political controversies that ensued. This is primarily seen through the issue of representation, which consistently played a key role in the creation of both the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C., and the Dachau concentration camp memorial. While the Dachau memorial’s conception stages, the designers were contemplating which victim groups to include. For instance, the mayor of Dachau stated, “Please do not make the mistake of thinking that only heroes died in Dachau. Many inmates were…there because they illegally opposed the regime of the day….You have to remember there were many criminals and homosexuals in Dachau. Do we want a memorial to such people?” (Harold Maruse, “Dachau,” 151). With this quote, the mayor implies that the memorial will only be dedicated to those he deems worthy of representation. Likewise, the White House officials orchestrating the American Holocaust Museum also debated a similar notion regarding the inclusion of ethic victim groups other than the Jews. However, Wiesel and other Holocaust survivors believed that commemorating non-Jews was an “…obscene incursion into the boundaries of Holocaust memory by those whose country-men had persecuted survivors” (Edward T. Linenthal, Preserving Memory, 53). For this reason, and in order to avoid the generation of false memories, these groups

Most Holocaust memorials within Carinthia can be found within the regional capital, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. The first memorial was built in 1966 and is situated in the Annabichl cemetery: ‘Opfer für ein freies Österreich 1938-1945’. There were, significant shortcomings regarding the memorial. For one, the word Opfer implies a voluntary, sacrificial victim. The meaning of the Holocaust is thus misconstrued to a voluntary resistance movement against national socialism, which, most importantly, belittles the victims suffering. Additionally, there was no indication of Carinthias contribution to the Holocaust. Despite its shortcomings, however, this memorial follows the Marcuse’s statement that ‘all concentration camp memorial sites created in

As you walk around the pond to gain access to the memorial, there stand rows of granite walls that hold a timeline of the Holocaust period. Pictures and descriptions are carefully chosen to educate the most important moments of this terrifying era. At the end of the wall is a small dome that connects to a short enclosed tunnel, which takes you to the memorial. The tunnel is filled with sounds of children singing in Hebrew, and with their songs you realize this is a sacred place. As you enter the memorial, you see the giant sculpture tower before you and it is quite overwhelming. The memorial is enclosed by more granite walls filled with the names of those who perished in the Holocaust, as if it were a cemetery. As the guide speaks you try to

Thank you for showing us around the Holocaust Museum. When showing us around the museum you explained and answer the question very thoroughly and without any hesitation. One specific moment i remembered is when you showed us the carts that the jews had to sleep in and barely ten people could fit but back then 25 to 40 people had to stay in those, that's what really stuck with me after the tour. The background information we had opened our minds to what you were saying and added a whole lot more. The Museum trip was a hoot and very interesting and that was too you volunteering your time to come and teach me and class mate about the Holocaust so if someday in the future to never let what happen then happen again.

My trip to Washington, D.C. was definitely one to be remembered, thanks to everything from the breathtaking sights, to breakfast every morning. Getting to travel all around our nation’s capitol and seeing things like the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial was nothing less than surreal, but if I had to pick one piece in particular that stood out, I would say the Holocaust Museum had the greatest impact on me. Everything about this museum emotionally hit me, from the statistics and information shown on the walls, to even the lighting. The Permanent Exhibit of this museum was very dim, which gave it a more somber feel. Being able to see what the bunks of concentration camps actually looked like really

An important aspect of these monuments are that they are beginning to memorialize all the victims from the Holocaust, such as the Jews, handicapped, and homosexuals.

Berlin is the capital city of Germany, most famously known for the Berlin wall. However, Berlin although historically important, is the heart of one of the largest travesties in world history, the Holocaust. Berlin played a large role in the Holocaust because the community contained 32% of the Jews in all of Germany. There are nights that would be synonymously with Berlin like Kristallnacht, and the mass deportations of Jews from Berlin to killing centers. A lot of these facts about Berlin are common knowledge and easily accessible. However, there are clear roles that gender played in each of these events before and during the Holocaust. They were especially prominent in Berlin due to the mass number of Jews that lived in Berlin.