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THE
SHOAH IS NOT A SHOW
Design of Holocaust museums
Prof. Siona
Shimshi
Architectural excellence, aesthetic beauty and financial
solidity are not the only factors in the success of museums and memorial
sites for the "Shoah" (Hebrew word for Holocaust). As Jean
Baudriard once said, "Forgetting destruction is part of destruction",
reminding us that preservation of every possible testimony is a crucial
component in the ongoing front against Holocaust-deniers. Is the museum
the right vehicle for ensuring that the Holocaust remains on the public
agenda? Is it the best way to confront Holocaust-denial? Does it convey
a message to future generations?
There is no one concept that for the establishment of museums and
monuments beyond the vision of those who have the means to dictate
its terms. The fundamental question, is there any form of architecture
capable of expressing such human tragedy, gives rise to endless questions
reducing the subject to statistics and "evidence", depending
on the date and location.
Are museums a better medium for marking the event, better than monuments
or other memorials? The difference between a regular museum displaying
mankind's achievements and a museum chronicling the Holocaust is that
the enormity of the event demands that it be reflected not only in
the artifacts and how they are exhibited, but also in every element
of the institution, including its permanent and temporary exhibits,
assembly areas, exhibits, cafeterias, and the bookstore.
If a museum is a building based on aesthetics and beauty, how does
one present the aesthetics of horror? In the absence of authentic
artifacts, one must rely on virtual presentations of a limited number
of "Holocaust images." A visual saturation of dramatic cliches
is used to attract the attention of the detached museum visitor.
Comparison of famous Holocaust memorial museums demonstrates
the genre's problems. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
opened in Washington in 1993, after seven years of construction. Designed
by architect James Ingo Freed, and built at the cost of $168 million,
it is widely considered to be a success worthy of imitation. Its vast
and complex interior is based on formal narratives, according to German-born
Freed. The visitor embarks on a "journey" through the exhibits,
navigating a series of challenging and awkward walkways, designed
to elicit a degree of physical discomfort. The route winds from the
fourth to the first floor, until it reaches the memorial hall, shaped
like the Star of David.
In New York, the Museum of Jewish Heritage includes a "Living
Memorial to the Holocaust." It attempts to educate the public
about the Jewish experience "before, during and after the Holocaust".
Kevin Roche designed the building, completed in 1997 at an investment
of $60 million. Situated at the southern end of Battery Park; the
six-sided building is used to symbolize both the six million who perished
and the Star of David, despite its exterior which hints at a Chinese
pagoda.
In Germany, death camps have been preserved to serve as the most authentic
of artifacts. Ruined synagogues have been rebuilt as museums, powerfully
"exhibiting" themselves. The Libeskind Jewish Museum in
Berlin, while not faciltating exhibitions, functions as a monument
despite having failed in its mission to serve as a place of storage
of Jewish art treasures. In Poland, where much of the Holocaust horror
took place, there has been debate over the past decade regarding proposals
to build a museum in Nalevki (former ghetto of Warsow). In the end,
it was decided that the museum would focus on the achievements and
accomplishments of Polish Jews, which is ironical in that such attention
onced served as the fuel of anti-Semitism.
Any discussion of Holocaust museums should start and perhaps end at
Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem center designed to express Israel's national
commitment to preserve and safeguard testimonies of the Holocaust
for future generation. As time passes, "living testimonials"
are fading and a periodic reassessment is called for. Fiscal contributions
are generally aimed at extending and maintaining buildings, and not
necessarily towards acquisition of exhibits; the result is not always
authentic.
The standard museum approach to documentation and memorial of Holocaust
artifacts usually fails to do them justice, often reducing the significance
of other subjects involved. The Memorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu in
Paris was one of the first Holocaust museums; it has also become a
site of renewal and redefinition as the largest memorial of its kind
in Europe.
Jews who returned to Paris after the war tended to avoid reference
to the Holocaust, except when searching for relatives or in collecting
compensation. The establishment of a memorial center lead to much
resistance among them and almost to a civil war. They viewed helping
the many remaining orphans as their main concern, and others wanted
only to escape the Judaism that lead them to the death camps. During
the inauguration ceremony in 1956, the Chief Rabbi of Paris begged
that the sacred site not become a battlefield.
The Contemporary Jewish Documentation Centre ("CJDC") project
was the dream of Itzhak Shneorson, a Parisian blessed with a sense
for history, who early in the Second World War began documenting the
Nazi horrors. On returning to Paris after the war, he decided to erect
a monument in memory of the murdered Jews, turning to Jewish Auschwitz
survivor, architect Alexander Frasiz. He proposed a building to house
Shneorson's documentation, including the Gestapo archive seized in
Paris after falling from a fleeing Nazi truck.
The City of Paris offered a section of land in the Marais
- the district most identified with Jewish history in Paris. It was
designed to house both the Memorial and the CDJC. The German Committee
of Compensation Payments expressed its support of the idea, albeit
on condition it should be dedicated to the entire six million murdered
and not just the French. And because this was a first attempt to deal
with the Holocaust, contributions arrived from all over the world.
The site was declared the property of the entire Jewish people, and
world leaders attended the cornerstone ceremony in 1953. The only
leader opposed to the project was Israel's first prime minister, David
Ben-Gurion. However, the founding of the French memorial spurred him
to finally approved the long-delayed Yad Vashem Law, which declares
that only the State of Israel has the right to document the Holocaust.
Shortly after, Yad Vashem Institute was lauched; begun as a modest
building and memorial tent, today it is boundless in size and reach.
Meanwhile in Paris, the Memorial/CJDC building was inaugurated in
1956, gaining prizes and international attention. Its plain building
of four floors did not anticipate the tremendous focus the Holocaust
would gain in the future, nor that its documentation and study would
require vast acres of storage space. Its archives contain details
on 400,000 victims and the library houses over 65,000 books in seven
language. The building's identifying component is a lattice wall constructed
of Stars of David, whose presence is projected throughout all the
building's rooms, and a courtyard facing the street, which is always
seen through bars. A huge bronze column symbolizes the crematorium
chimneys, and the names of the death camps are engraved in the floor.
A major extension is planned to be named the Shoah Memorial. The enlarged
site will not join the parade of sensationalist architecture (for
marketing purposes) due to its location in the district of Paris that
is most strictly conserved. The additional 2,600 meters will be mainly
below street level. The new plans will include committee areas, temporary
and permanent exhibit halls, some using virtual representations from
the Washington museum and others from Yad Vashem. The founders' dream
of engraving the names of the victims (French) on the walls of the
center will be fulfilled with the opening of the extension. On walls
four meter high, coated in Jerusalem stone, the names of 76,000 French
victims will be carved.
If documentation of the names of the murder victims is the central
subject of the programme, a more effective medium is found in the
memorial signs scattered across the city. In 1946, following demands
from families of executed underground fighters, the Minister of Interior
established a committee to oversee memorial signs. The committee determined
that stone slabs will be the standard, with no special design; the
content is the message. As a disciplined city which does not tolerate
unlicensed signage, Paris prepared appropriate regulations in 1954,
and in 1985 another law was passed compelling the restoration and
preservation of all the memorial signs, even when the building was
demolished. The memorial signs are installed only if the property
owner does not object. In 1983 an official book was published, documenting
all the city's signs.
A walk following the trail of signs is an incredible journey of discovery,
telling a tale of horrifying events. The whole city becomes a monument
to human injustice. Tracking them is not simple, even with the address
at hand. Some are buried on walls covered in commercial signage; only
the metal ring for holding garlands of flowers reveals their presence.
The signs link the homes of Jews who were sent to their death by the
Nazis, and the schools where their children studied. The number of
signs is particularly high where Jews resided - the Marais, Belleville
and the Sixteenth Quarter. Memorial signs also appear in Metro and
train stations from where victims were transported to death camps.
The French use plain language: "taken", "murdered",
"driven away in the night", accompanied by names and dates.
The simple memorial signs of Paris are the ultimate "living memorial",
outshining in their authenticity any other Shoah "shows"®
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