Holocaust Memorial
In the center of Berlin, Germany, stands a monumental complex of 2,711 cement columns without any writing on the monument. The entire monument complex is the size of 4 football fields and does not have the main entrance and exit of the general landmark building. Gray cement piles of different heights, undulating with the turquoise waves of the terrain, like huge sarcophagi. This is a Holocaust memorial built by Germany for the Jews killed in World War II. At the heart of the country's political center, the creation of such a huge forest of steles to commemorate the actions of the victims of Nazi atrocities has undergone a long debate in Germany.
In 1988, a German female television journalist proposed to the society to build a monument to the Nazi-era murdered Jews on the site of the former secret police headquarters in Berlin. The female journalist gave herself a Jewish name, she was not Jewish herself, she called herself Leia. Promise. It was by that name that she proposed the monument. Leia. The promised initiative has caused controversy in society. First, whether it is appropriate to strengthen the Germans' sense of guilt in this way; second, whether it is appropriate to build a monument to the victims on the site of the perpetrators at the headquarters of the secret police. After german reunification, the former secret police headquarters became a center for displaying Nazi materials. Leia. The promised civic group then proposed that the monument be erected in the clearing where the Berlin Wall once stood, hoping to make the Holocaust a common memory after the merger of East and West Germany. And this has once again caused a fierce debate between building and not building.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
In 1998, German Chancellor Schroeder decided that the Bundestag would decide on the construction of the monument. A year later, the Bundestag overwhelmingly passed the resolution on the construction of the monument and solicited design proposals from all over the world. After discussion, the design of the Jewish architect Ashchenman from the United States was finally selected, and the original plan was a huge labyrinth containing more than 4,000 stone tablets. After the plan was released, the next debate began because it was so expressive that the government rejected the design. This was too difficult for people to accept, so they softened it a bit, and eventually the number of tombstones was reduced to 2711.
On May 10, 2005, after 17 years of waiting, the Holocaust Memorial was finally unveiled to the world. Eichmann once explained that neither the number nor the shape of the cement tablets has any symbolic significance, but conveys a feeling of tearing, like the children forcibly taken from their parents in Nazi concentration camps. The ground on which the monuments stand is also deliberately built into undulating shapes, so that visitors can experience a strong uneasiness when they walk among them.
Germany is the only country in the world to erect a memorial to the victims of war in its capital. They killed Jews, and the monument stands next to their parliament, a clear reminder of the killing of European Jews.
German artist Demnich
In 1992, the German artist Demnich embedded a copper plate on the pavement in front of Cologne City Hall, inscribed with the first line of the Auschwitz Decree, which attracted more and more Germans to join and became known as the "stumbling block movement".
Copper plates engraved with Jewish names, dates of birth, etc
Copper plates inscribed with their names, dates of birth, etc. were laid in front of the devastated Jewish dwellings. Students wandered around the city in search of places where Jews once lived. They erected small stone tablets in these places that said that a Jewish family had once lived here, and the name of the family.
There are memorials to the victims of Jews all over Germany, but there are almost none in Japan, because the Japanese government's failure to do these things affects the Japanese society's perception of history. Hitler said that the German nation was the best nation in the world, and the Japanese national Shinto said that the Japanese nation had a sacred mission to rule the whole world by its absolute superiority. Both Japan and Germany started World War II because of extreme statism and racism. How do Japan assert its national identity by denying and obscuring its responsibility for war, while Germany's purge of nationalism and racism is almost harsh, how do they balance the sense of guilt with the self-identity of the nation?
Jews persecuted in World War II
In April 1945, the U.S. occupation forces organized a visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp by the local German population. The inhabitants of Germany were shocked by the crimes committed by their people. At the end of the Second World War, the Germans did not like their national identity at all, and it was in the name of the nation that these crimes were committed, are you willing to continue to belong to such a nation? Under this people, millions of people were slaughtered. Former federal president Heinemann even declared, "I don't love this country, I love my wife." In 1985, the German female journalist Janssen. Ulet sent a letter to many Germans asking them to answer the question "Do you love Germany?" This seemingly simple, even naïve, question caused an uproar among recipients. Some refused to answer, some angrily complained, some were restless. Many people suddenly feel a strong desire to talk and write back. Janssen later published a collection of reply letters, which summarized the feelings of the replyers, and it was painful to be a German. German society thus began to discuss how, after decades of painful reflection on the Nazi crimes of World War II, Germany should overcome its past history and form a new national identity.
Weimar, Germany
There is a small town in Germany called Weimar, where many well-known German celebrities live, which represents the pinnacle of Germany. But on the other side of Weimar was Buchenwald, a concentration camp established by the Nathans, where tens of thousands of people died or were killed. Both belong to the same German history and are so close together. The Germans' understanding of history is that it is neither black nor white, but a collection of contradictions.
Historian Lusen has a famous "three-generation theory" about Germany's post-war understanding of the process of war responsibility. The first generation avoids responsibility, the second generation believes that they should bear the full blame, and the third generation has a more rational view of history. Germans today have a clear understanding of the crimes committed by the Nazis against humanity during World War II, but they do not feel guilty. They knew that this was indeed done by the Germans, and they accepted it. Germany today does not forget its historical responsibility for the crimes it has committed against humanity because of its achievements in reality, nor does it assume the original sin of waging war.