Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial

Yad Vashem is an immensely famous holocaust memorial site founded in 1953, which pays respect to the six million Jews who lost their while simultaneously honouring the non-Jews who risked their lives to keep Jews safe (righteous among the nations) in what was the most anti-Semitic event in our history. Yad Vashem is situated on the western slope of Mount Herzl on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem

1) Motive (who designed/ built it and WHY?)
Moshe Safdie and associates were the intelligent architects behind Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem has four main motives/aims which include aspect such as; education, research and documentation, and commemoration.

2) Content
Yad Vashem has a unique design from all the other memorials. The design is physically
The 25 million euro construction effort was only finished in December 2004 but it only opened almost halfway through the year of 2005. It is located one block south of the Brandenburg Gate, one of Germany’s most popular landmarks and one of the worlds most recognised monuments.

2) Motive
Holocaust Memorial Berlin was devised by famous architect Peter Eisenman and innovative engineer by the name of Buro Happold. The memorial came about as a non-Jewish German television journalist and a non-Jewish historian (named Lea Rosh and Eberhard Jäckel) first started pushing a case for Germany to pay their respects to the six million Jews massacred in the holocaust. In the year of 1989 Rosh founded a campaign to support its construction and collect donations going towards it and due to the ongoing support of the initiative, the German Federal Parliament (in 1999) decided to build the memorial.

3)
Although Eisenman said the design had no symbolic significance he did want it to represent what happens when a system has a breakdown with its human element. There are various interpretations, it is most frequently compared to a graveyard of unmarked graves just like the unknown or unmarked pits from the holocaust. The Eisenman design resulted from a competition launched in 1997 whereby architects were invited to submit proposals. Peter Eisenman and artist Richard Serra collaborated and won. Serra resigned from the design team. The original design envisaged 4000 stone pillars of varying heights in a labyrinth spanning over 180,00 square feet. In 1999 the number of pillars was reduced and a building called the house of remembrance was added. It contained an information center and an exhibition space.

From an architectural point of view, the information centers’ most prominent feature is the sunken panels in the concrete ceiling. The memorials design purpose is to evoke feelings of uneasiness and capture the viewers.

4) Perspective

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe influences the way we view the holocaust today because it makes us understand the scale of brutality and inhumanity that the Jews had to endure during the holocaust. It was in these countries where these acts