The Holocaust Memorial, also known as the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, is an extremely moving experience and should be visited by all those travelling to Berlin. I had the good fortune to travel to Europe, including Berlin, in 2014 and the visit to the memorial, and the information centre below, have not escaped by memory.
The memorial is made up of 2,711 grey concrete slabs, identical in their horizontal dimensions but all differ vertically. It evokes the feelings of a graveyard but what is symbolises must be experienced by a walk among the pillars. However, it is the information centre underneath that make this into a true memorial. The aim of the centre is “personalise the inconceivable suffering” because “only through personalisation can the anonymity of the victims be overcome”.
Here you will learn about the different sites of mass murder all over Europe and sites of the various concentration camps. The most touching, however, are the room showing biographies and fate of Jewish families and the “Room of Names” where names of individuals are projected onto the walls while their biographical details are heard through the speakers (in German and English). You cannot read the biographies or listen to the stories without a lump in the throat and eyes full tears. That’s what makes is personal and real and inspires the determination that we should not allow this to ever happen again.