In commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January, here’s a selection of some of the world’s most impressive Holocaust memorials. Born out of destruction, these are striking modern art installations or awe-inspiring architecture. A bitter-sweet juxtaposition which makes their meaning ever more poignant.
Table of Contents
Why I think it’s important to keep commemorating WWII and the Holocaust
I’m not writing this article to discuss any political values or historical truths. Obviously, I’m not an history or politics expert. All I can offer is my personal opinion and values. What I find important, might not be important to you. And that’s fine. I’m not here to lecture. (So, don’t lecture me in return either, please.)
I realise the Holocaust is a sensitive topic, and I’m approaching it purely out of respect. Respect for all those who’ve lost their lives at the hands of oppressors who believed they were superior. Respect for the survivors whose lives, minds and hearts have been scarred for life. But equally important, out of respect for my own freedom and having had the opportunity to grow up in freedom. A freedom that to this day sadly isn’t a given for everybody in the world.
The importance of celebrating my personal freedom might stem from growing up in the Netherlands. Each year on Remembrance Day, the 4th of May, we hold a 2-minute silence at 8pm. There are several official ceremonies across the country with the one at Dam Square in Amsterdam, attended by the royal family, being the main one. Following Remembrance Day, we have the celebratory 5th of May which we call Liberation Day (Bevrijdingsdag). Spread over 14 different locations, there are spectacular and joyful Liberation Festivals, the largest music event in the Netherlands. Its main goal is to celebrating our liberation and freedom. Therefore, to me remembering one of too many dark chapters in human history and acknowledging my personal privilege go hand in hand naturally.
I remember having the discussion about the value of Remembrance Day in primary school. Some kids didn’t see the point in this. I mean, when you’re 10 years old, five years ago is already almost a lifetime ago, let alone over forty years ago. But to me, it felt very important to honour those millions of people and to remember this was done to them by other humans. Not some disaster, not some disease, but other people, who in essence might not have been much different from you and me.
Witnessing the rise of nationalism all across the world from Brazil to the UK, I’m scared. And now being in the middle of a global crisis, it’s especially easy to spread indoctrinating beliefs. For this reason, I find it ever more important to remember our dark past, which honestly isn’t that long ago. We’re not talking about the time of the crusades here, but modern times with people from that era still being alive.
Being a travel blog with a focus on culture and architecture, I decided to honour International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January) with a collection of impressive Holocaust memorials that remind us of the atrocities of the WWII through humbling architecture and moving modern art installations.
Commemorating the Holocaust through modern art and architecture
Looking up information about these Holocaust memorials, I found there’s some controversy around a few of them. Again, I’m not here to give the full political or social-historical context. I regard them as striking architectural designs that serve as a poignant reminder. Feel free to do your own personal research into their backgrounds. For more information about Holocaust remembrance, please visit the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Judenplatz, Vienna (Austria)
Located in the historical Jewish Quarter of Vienna, Judenplatz, stands Rachel Whiteread’s striking Schoa Memorial. Its shut windows and doors tend to represent different things to different people. To me they represent the door to darkness. Like Pandora’s Box, they have the power to unleash unspeakable things. Although, these unspeakable things have already taken place in reality and surpass all hypothetical imagination.
The walls of the building consist of hundreds of books. Closed books, with not their spines but pages turned towards the viewer. Their unwritten pages as painfully near-tangible as the events they symbolise.
This stark art installation and Holocaust Memorial commemorates the more than 65,000 Austrian Jews who were killed by the Nazis between 1938 and 1945. Inscribed in the base around the cast building, you can read the names of the nearly fifty different places they lost their lives, including Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Sobibir. The same concentration camps where the majority of Dutch Jews had been deported to and were killed during WII.
Bologna Shoah Memorial (Italy)
Having yet to see the striking Bologna Shoah Memorial by Italian SET Architects in person, I can only imagine how impressive it would be to stand right next to it. It’s one of the most humbling Holocaust Memorials I’ve ever come across, both in real life and online.
The Bologna Shoah Memorial consists of two huge steel blocks, each measuring 10 x 10 metres in size. The space between them is 160 centimetres at the top, but only 80 centimetres at the base. Visitors and passers-by can walk through the narrow opening and I can just imagine how overwhelming that might feel. Because, standing in their midst, the sense of oppression symbolises the level of oppression experienced by the prisoners in the Nazi camps.
On the inside of both steel blocks, you can see empty boxes, which in their turn symbolise the dormitories in the camps. In all its simplicity, this must be one of the most powerful Holocaust Memorials in the world, at least from an artistic and architectural perspective.
National Holocaust Monument, Ottawa (Canada)
Opened in Ottowa in 2017, the National Holocaust Monument by Sudio Libeskind was the first Holocaust Memorial in Canada. It’s both a memorial commemorating the millions of murdered Jews, but also an acknowledgement of the Holocaust survivors who managed to escape to Canada.
Viewed from above, you can recognise the memorial is laid out in the shape of a stretched Star of David. While wandering through the memorial, you traverse different sections. These are all divided and connected by concrete walls in various heights, the tallest being four metres tall.
Forming the six points of the Star of David, these walls follow clean lines and create sharp corners, even including tilted walls. Painted on some of the walls are murals based on photographs of Holocaust sites taken by renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, famous for his large-scale global industrial landscape images. In my opinion therefore, this Holocaust memorial brings together art, design, architecture and human emotions.
Related article: Iconic modern architecture in Rotterdam
Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem (Israel)
The Yad Vashem opened in Israel in 1953 already. Its main goal is to commemorate the six million Jews died during the Holocaust. But, housing the Holocaust History museum and International Holocaust research centre it’s far more than a memorial. Aiming to educate its visitors about the Holocaust, it consists of nine galleries filled with artefacts and spine-chilling exhibits.
Yad Vashem was expanded significantly in 2005 when the new Holocaust History Museum, designed by Moshe Safdie, opened. His striking triangular structure literally cuts through the landscape and features an iconic glass top floor.
Other remarkable features of Yad Vashem include the impressive Hall of Names in which visitors look up into a 9-metre tall conical structure. While the Holocaust victims were laid in unmarked mass graves, this memorial aims to identify the names and faces of all six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Amongst them were one and a half million children who are commemorated in the special children’s memorial Yad Layeled.
In addition, the thousands of non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust are being remembered at Yad Vashem. Over 2,000 trees in the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations have been planted in their honour. Growing taller and stronger over time, I wish the same could be said for human solidarity and compassion.
Für das Kind, London Liverpool Street Station (UK)
Before moving to London, I would visit Hubby for the weekend every fortnight. Taking the Stansted Express into London Liverpool Street Station, I only realised much later that this very station was the path towards freedom for thousands of children at the eve of WWII.
Following the Kristallnacht in November 1938, the UK set out a unique rescue mission. Abolishing special immigration requirements, nearly 10,000 unaccompanied and pre-dominantly Jewish children left their families and homes and were put on trains to the UK. In hindsight, it’s in such stark contrast to the trains millions of Jews were put only a few years later. Only this time, these trains led them towards their deaths instead of freedom.
The special rescue operation, called Kindertransport, came to an end when the war finally broke out. Sadly, the children who were sent to safety, were often the only Holocaust survivors of their families. In remembrance of the Kindertransport, there are several Für das Kind sculptures at stations across Europe from where the children originally departed in addition to those in London. I hope those children grew up to be happy and healthy adults, despite the unbearable loss they must’ve carried in their hearts their whole lives.
Budapest Holocaust memorials: Tree of Life and The Shoes on the Danube Bank
I still vividly remember visiting Budapest with my schoolmates during my Uni days and stopping by the Holocaust Tree of Life memorial. Located next to the Great Synagogue, this beautiful metal tree stands over the mass graves of Jews murdered in 1944-45. In itself, it’s a very pleasing installation, but even without knowing its meaning, it has something melancholic to it. However, realising that it represents the 600,000 murdered Hungarian Jews whose names are inscribed in the leaves, it made my tummy turn.
Shortly after my visit to Budapest, they unveiled another Holocaust memorial in the city. I have only seen pictures of it online so far, but already find it such a powerful image. The Shoes on the Danube Bank features sixty pairs of metal 1940s style shoes. Pointing towards the river Danube, they commemorate the Jews who were shot at the river bank in 1944-45. Victims were often ordered to remove their shoes so that the militia could sell or trade them for goods.
They were then lined up in a row on the river bank and shot upon which their bodies plunged into the river. Sometimes victims weren’t shot or dead yet, but were tied to someone who was shot and thus got dragged in the water nonetheless. Leaving behind their shoes in eternity, this memorial is a devastating reminder of what humans are capable of.
‘Stumbling stones’ (various places in Europe)
I’ve been seeing many of the so-called Stolpersteine (in English: stumbling stones) in European cities for several years now. But it wasn’t till I joined a free city walking tour in the German city of Cologne that I learned about the origins of these remembrance stones. It turned out that they were made by Cologne-based artist Gunter Demnig. He wasn’t commissioned to do so but started to lay them out in the streets of Cologne in 1992 as a commemoration to the Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust.
These shiny golden stones stuck in pavements are placed near the homes of Holocaust victims. Inscribed in the stones are first of all the words Hier wohnte (‘Here lived’) followed by the person’s name, date of birth, their terrible fate (often deportation), and finally the date and location of death.
Today, there are over 70,000 of them, across 1,200 cities in Europe and Russia. Although his Stolpersteine are generally received positively, there’s also some controversy around them. There are people who think it’s disrespectful to the Holocaust victims to have their names printed in the ground and to be walked over by thousands of feet.
I could definitely see where these opponents are coming from. But then our tour guide shared an insightful quote from the artist he had once heard and made a lasting impression on him.
According to the artist statement, the way the stones are displayed is actually far from disrespectful. Both the location in the ground and the material have been really well-thought-out by Demnig. He chose to bury the commemoration stones so low down in the ground, because this makes passer-byers unconsciously bow down whilst they try to read the inscription. But also, the more the stones are walked over, the brighter the gold gets and the more the victim’s names shine.
This truly moved me. And since that walk in Cologne, I always think of this ceremonial act whenever I stumble upon the Stolpersteine.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin (Germany)
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin must be one of the most famous Holocaust memorials in the world. Spread over an area of 19,000 square metres, the memorial consists of 2,711 rectangular concrete pillars. Seen from above, they might resemble rows of domino stones. Because they all vary in height, the overall wave-like shape gives it a very organic feel. Which is quite remarkable considering the material of course.
Having seen this Holocaust memorial in Berlin several times, I know how impressive it feels to walk amongst these narrow cobbled-stone lanes with most of the pillars towering over you. However, they’re also incredibly photogenic and sadly lots of visitors use the site as their Instagram backdrop rather than respecting its meaning. But there’s a small chance they don’t even know that it is a memorial. Because architect Peter Eisenman very consciously designed it without any plaques, signs or inscriptions. His Holocaust memorial is therefore just as anonymous as the mass graves the victims were buried in.
This article will be updated with more impressive Holocaust memorials I may encounter in the future, once I can resume travelling again. This is partly to commemorate the six million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust. And also because I find it very important to remember how frail the concepts of peace, freedom, security, compassion and love are. These are things we need to cherish, nourish and pass on to future generations. Without them, I believe humanity would be lost.
Save these impressive Holocaust memorials for future reference
