Berlin's Holocaust Memorials: Remembering Jewish and Gay Victims of Nazi Rule

The Denkmal für die Ermordeten Juden Europas (Memorial to the Murdered European Jews) is a powerful and massive, five-and-a-half-acres memorial. 2,711 gravestone-like columns honor those Jews killed by the Nazis. It opened in May, 2005, after years of planning and controversy. When you are walking along the cobblestone walkways between the pillars, it is intended to invoke a feeling of being lost, alone and disoriented. The paths between the pillars slope down as you move deeper into the memorial. There’s an underground center that includes the known names of those killed in the Holocaust along with letters from those on their way to concentration camps. It’s truly a remarkable memorial that recalls the unimaginable. Info: Ebertstrasse and Behrenstrasse. Tel: 030/26394336. Open at all times. Information center open daily 10am-8pm. Admission: Free. S-Bahn: Unter den Linden. http://www.holocaustdenkmal.de/

On the other side of the street (Ebertstrasse) is a concrete slab with a small widow where you view a same-sex couple kissing. This is the Monument to the Homosexuals Persecuted During National Socialism. Homosexuals were rounded up by the Nazis during World War II, forced to wear pink triangles, and sent to concentration camps.