REMEMBERING THE SHOAH IN BERLIN

The nature of this research is fundamentally based on subjectivity and personal connections to the understanding and history of the Shoah. I have tried to generally adopt a measured sense of engagement with the representation of the Shoah in Berlin, providing a balanced and comparative reflection on the effects of memorializing a sensitive period of history. I have a personal connection to the Shoah as it deeply involves my ancestry, my family are Jewish and I had many relatives who lived in Germany prior to the war. My grandfather was a German Jew and escaped Germany before the Nazi’s appropriation of Eastern and Central Europe; many members of his family did not survive the Nazi terror and are victims of the Shoah.

My social location as a young Jew affects the way in which I relate to the monuments and the memorialization of Berlin. The memorials have a different impact on individuals from different social strata and are impacted in differing ways, in relation to their understanding of the Shoah and involvement in the history. For a Berliner with Nazi ancestry their opinion of the memorial landscape in Berlin may be in contrast to mine, however, the presence of counter-memorials throughout Berlin evoked different opinions from me. At first, I was unsettled by what I viewed to be a lack of recognition to the Shoah and felt a need for things to be clearer and more evident to aid the basic understanding of what occurred throughout the city to educate people who were unaware of the history of the Shoah in Berlin. However, on reflection the counter-memorials incite far more than basic knowledge on dates and statistics of victims, but involves innocent passers by to become engaged with the act of memory work. For example through the ‘Places of Remembrance’ installation where the everyday is contrasted with the tragic history of the location and ‘Stolpersteine’ which subtly interrupts the everyday thought to remind people of the omnipresence of history and violence in the city. The performance required by these counter-memorials leaves a more lasting effect than a traditional monument.