I have visited the Jewish memorial in Berlin.
Its located at the corner of the Ebertstrasse and the Hannah Arendt strasse, close to the Brandenburger tor and opposite of the US embassy..
AT first sight you see large rows of concrete blocks in various sizes and shapes.
When you enter the museum under the ground you will notice that some of the blocks are also visible at the ceiling of the museum.
The museum describes the holocaust from the early 30s to the Kristallnacht and to the final anihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.
Every room tells about a different aspect of the Holocaust.
Personal stories but also stories about entire families and individuals suffering and hardship, from different countries, often completed with official German documents, pictures from the people involved and much more.
..
View from the street.The first room you enter ( Room of dimensions) is devoted to letters, diaries and personal notes/last wills from different people.
The next room (Room of Families) deals about the story of 15 families from 15 different countries.
Pictures, stories, eyewitnessaccounts, letters and official documents describes what happened to the individual members of each of those families.
The third room ( Room of names) has a large collection of names and biographies of murdered jews from all of Europe.
Reading the stories and listening to the tapes would take 6 years, 7 months and 27 days.
The collection is still growing thanks to gifst from people and donations from everywhere in the world.
The 4th room ( Room of order) deals about the geographic locations of the camps, the transports and the logistic efforts that the NAZIs undertook to execute the Holocaust.
Yad Vahem has off course a special place in this museum, a large fotocollection of memorial sites is present there.
The museum also offers a virtual environment and a large database with a lot of information, ideal for schools.
Its worth a visit, plan at least 4 hours to see everything.
Pictures and info: author.
