The Holocaust Memorial (or Memorial To The Murdered Jews Of Europe, Berlin, Germany) was something that I'd been wanting to see for ages. I had no idea what an impact it would have though. There were no words to properly describe the way it made me feel, other than I found it awe inspiring and horrific. Spectacular and sickening. As I walked round, I had these mixed feelings of just... being absolutely amazed by the stunning architecture of the structure, and at the same time being terrified of getting lost in the towering concrete maze. It really hammered home the gravity of the holocaust, the amount of lives lost and the fear and confusion that those affected must have felt.
The museum below the structure was... amazing. It really was. Reading the information there, the whole span of the ghastly event over the years, the letters or quickly scribbled notes of those before they died, the whole families involved and who survived, what each concentration camp had been designed for... Just, heartbreaking. Really heartbreaking. I couldn't (and of course, no one else could) conceive how humans could have done this. How people were turned against just because of their faith. I mean, we still have these problems today, but not on such a colossal, all-at-once scale. I was left with a feeling of heaviness and sadness as the gravity of what happened properly sunk in.
When you come out, you walk back up to the surface and immediately find yourself in the middle of the concreate maze. You feel nervous, belittled by the towering structures and completely lost as you try to find your way back out to the road.
It is a beautiful and breathtaking way of conveying something through art and I strongly, strongly advise everyone to see it at some point in their lives!
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