In this weekend's Wall Street Journal, Peter Eisenman's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was featured in an article titled "The Facelessness of Mass Destruction."
Willard Spiegelman writes: "Memorials and gravesites are synonymous with naming, except for places like a Tomb of the Unknowns. In the case of six million European Jews who perished in the Holocaust, names are often impossible to come by. Despite the best efforts of historians and the work of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, information for about half of the victims—the times and places of their deaths—may be forever lost. Mr. Eisenman's stark pillars represent the facelessness of mass destruction."
When I visited the memorial this past March, I was struck by its austerity and found it difficult to capture its magnitude in words. In the WSJ article, Spiegelman acutely and accurately describes the feeling of claustraphobia caused by the towering 'graves,' dipping paths, and sharp corners.
For the full article, go to:
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