Wednesday, May 11, 2005

German Jewish Leader Criticizes Holocaust Memorial

From South Africa's News24.com, comes this account of an attack on Berlin's newest public art project by Paul Spiegel, head of the Central Council of German Jews (thanks to Roger L. Simon for the link) : "Spiegel said any abstract work attempting to depict the Holocaust, such as Berlin's memorial, was fated to lose out in the bid to prevent people from forgetting past horrors. He underlined that the real Holocaust memorials - aside from Yad Vashem in Israel - were the former Nazi concentration camps, the mass graves and the burned-down synagogues in Germany and across Europe."

Indeed, Spiegel has a point. Perhaps all of Continental Europe might be seen as a Holocaust Memorial for the dead--and Israel as a Holocaust Memorial for the living...