One of the most visited places in the German city of Berlin is The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Peter Eisenman, an architect from New York, won the contest for the construction of the memorial by proposing to build something unique, that was not intended as a pilgrimage destination but as a natural element of the city which could eventually evoke the tragedy.
It is a perfect grid of 2700 concrete blocks which are between 0.2 and 4.8 meters high. The blocks are placed on a19000 square meters wavy surface which produces the sensation of watching a concrete sea. People can randomly plunge into the infinite hallways formed by the cement blocks.
Walking through the high stones produces a mixture of feelings such as despair, claustrophobia or oppression. Something similar to what so many millions of Jews suffered.
There are two characteristics that not many people know when visiting the site and that are undoubtedly worth of mention.
The first peculiarity is related to the construction process. The final part of the project took place at Berlin, the city of graffiti, and consisted of covering the concrete with an anti-graffiti varnish. Degussa, the company in question, used a product called Protectosil for that purpose, but they had to stop halfway due to a controversy which came to light. Apparently, during the Nazi period Degesch (a subsidiary of Degussa) supplied the government with Zyklon B, one of the chemicals used to kill thousands of Jews at that time.
As an irony of fate, this incident stopped the memorials’ construction. However, it was almost impossible to find companies which had never collaborated with the Nazis. Therefore, in order to avoid the demolition of the already painted blocks and its unexpected expenses (several millions of euros), they decided, after long deliberation, to work together with Degussa. The company publicly apologized for its past actions and also provided the materials at cost.
The second singularity is related to the location of the place. Interestingly, the monument is located just 100 meters away from the place where Adolf Hitler’s bunker was situated, in which he lived during his last days and where he committed suicide after all. This space is nowadays occupied by an austere car parking.
Coincidence?
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