Standing Where They Stood

This week was lot to take in, it's overwhelming for me to put it all into perspective. I've been taught plenty about the Holocaust before, but physically going to these memorials made me feel entirely stronger emotions.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Visiting this memorial was a visually appealing experience. The architecture is unlike anything I've ever seen. From an artists perspective I appreciate how Peter Eisenman designed this memorial. Something I usually like my photos to do is make the viewer ask questions and have the opportunity to make their own interpretations. You as the viewer are not being told what to see, you have to imagine it on your own and make sense of it. I find this to be a very beautiful concept. Looking out into a sea of grey blocks, I began to wonder how can something so dull be so interesting. All the different sizes create harsh shadows in the day light that give it an abstract texture. 

Observing the grid pattern of concrete slabs on a field of slops, I felt uneasy and confused. This being such an ordered grid with clear paths still gives the viewer a lost touch of human reason. Like the architecture, the event it represents was uneasy, confusing, and lacked human reason. Walking through the memorial you start to feel disoriented and a little claustrophobic from the slabs that become much taller than you. It forces you to feel an emotion somewhat specific, which is most likely what Eisenman hoped to achieve.  

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Unlike the memorial above, this memorials location is very relevant. Standing where these people stood alone is overwhelming. Knowing the amount of terrible things that happened right where I stood gave me a sad overbearing feeling. Standing by the Neutral Zone where prisoners entered just to end their own suffering sent chills down my spine. When walking into the kitchen building there were large photos of the prisoners in the camp on the walls with descriptions. I am a very visual person so actually seeing the people in a area that I had recently walked through is when it all really hit me. It made the past seem present. 

The extermination building remains made me experience disgust. Seeing the outline of the rooms in the building and hearing what happened in each room made it a very visual and overwhelming experience. The huge ovens that burned over 600 people a day was hard to even look at. These innocent people had no idea what was coming for them, while the guards made jokes. It hurts my heart to know such cruelty could exist. 

Explicit drawings of treatment.

Where prisoners were hung to get beaten for hours at a time.