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This article describes how war memorials can be positive sources for communities (healing?) or negative sources (entrenched factionalism?). Your take? Here is an excerpt:
Conventional war memorials literally set in stone the concept of embattled nations, ‘sides’ and ‘enemies’. Decades after the end of the Second World War, there are no official monuments to German soldiers in Dresden, one of the places with the most problematic memorial cultures being studied by CRIC. Commemorations for the many people who died in the 1945 Allied bombing remain highly charged in the debate about how wartime loss can be recognised. A recent memorial drew such discussion. It had been erected where thousands of bodies had been cremated in public in 1945 when the city’s cemeteries could not take all the dead from the air raid....“The Dresden case shows that the memorial-landscape can become a battleground for conflicting interpretations of history and different claims on the future. It warns us that memorials are not just pieces of stone, they represent versions of history and they make claims about victims and heroes. Memorials can heal as well as hurt; but we have become so familiar with their presence that we don’t notice how they affect our understanding of history and therefore also ourselves,” says Sørensen.
I think they serve a purpose but their construction is often attended by criticism. The worst part is that some people are not interested in commemoration bu in using a memorial for contemporary political gain. The Dresden thing is a perfect example of that. Anyone who seriously studies history should know that the study of memory is becoming a big deal in historical circles. I do not like the trend, because discussion of memorial tends to forget what the memorial is supposed to commemorate.I also find it disturbing that most modern memorials seem to have nothing to do with the thing memorialized or are so abstract as to be unintelligible without explanation. Two perfect examples of that I can think of are the German Holocaust memorial in Berlin and Holocaust memorial in Boston.What the hell is that supposed to be?
This too, although I can vaguely make out that the columns are suppose to represent the chimneys of crematoria. I dislike this one the most because of its flamboyance, as you walk through the stacks, you are assailed by what is supposed to be the smell of burning bodies. I can tell you from personal experience that the smell is not that of burning human bodies, that smells more like when you burn burgers or baby bacl ribs on the grill.I can't believe that they would actually put up a memorial that looks like crematoria chimneys, or they would turn out smoke that was supposed to smell like charred flesh. Sounds like super bad taste. Is that in Berlin?
I can't believe that they would actually put up a memorial that looks like crematoria chimneys, or they would turn out smoke that was supposed to smell like charred flesh. Sounds like super bad taste. Is that in Berlin?
This is in Boston, New England.http://www.nehm.org/intro.html The design utilizes uniquely powerful symbols of the Holocaust. The Memorial features six luminous glass towers, each 54 feet high. The towers are lit internally to gleam at night. They are set on a black granite path, each one over a dark chamber which carries the name of one of the principal Nazi death camps. Smoke rises from charred embers at the bottom of these chambers. Six million numbers are etched in glass in an orderly pattern, suggesting the infamous tattooed numbers and ghostly ledgers of the Nazi bureaucracy. Evocative and rich in metaphor, the six towers recall the six main death camps, the six million Jews who died, or a menorah of memorial candles. Fortunately there is no "I'm Lovin it" signs cause of that fume ... (I'm ironic, no offense intended but I don't really understand the very reason for the fume)
I went to it in the summer of 2008 and there was a faint odor but as I said, it smelled nothing like burning flesh and was not near powerful enough. I would guess we have all burned something in the kitchen and know how strong that smell is. The only reason I can think the smell is not strong is to avoid offending people, which kind of defeats their stated point of bringing people closer to the holocaust.Read the description on the front page f the memorials site, especially the design piece: [font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The New England Holocaust Memorial [/font]
According to that monument design, the six glass towers recall “the six main death camps, the six million Jews who died, or a menorah of memorial candles” . I might be wrong but a menorah is a 7- or 9-branched candelabrum, isn't it ?
According to that monument design, the six glass towers recall "the six main death camps, the six million Jews who died, or a menorah of memorial candles" . I might be wrong but a menorah is a 7- or 9-branched candelabrum, isn't it ?
Yes, I think that a menorah would have to be odd-numbered if the middle candle is to be elevated.
I went to it in the summer of 2008 and there was a faint odor but as I said, it smelled nothing like burning flesh and was not near powerful enough. I would guess we have all burned something in the kitchen and know how strong that smell is. The only reason I can think the smell is not strong is to avoid offending people, which kind of defeats their stated point of bringing people closer to the holocaust.Read the description on the front page f the memorials site, especially the design piece: The New England Holocaust Memorial
I imagine that producing a kind of smell which is too powerful for a public place would border on nuisance. I have never been to the memorial so I can't say for sure, but what seems like an interesting artistic or symbolic idea at one time can be be executed poorly. Either you have a smell which is powerful and accurate and offends the public, or you have a smell which is too weak and the meaning is lost. I guess the latter course was chosen.
I imagine that producing a kind of smell which is too powerful for a public place would border on nuisance. I have never been to the memorial so I can't say for sure, but what seems like an interesting artistic or symbolic idea at one time can be be executed poorly. Either you have a smell which is powerful and accurate and offends the public, or you have a smell which is too weak and the meaning is lost. I guess the latter course was chosen.
You are probably right, people like to think they know what reality is when what they really know is shallow and borders on ignorance. Then again, I have major problems with most modern "art" not just memorials. I think art and memorials should speak for themselves, if I have to have it explained to me then the artist has failed. My wife and I talked about this today because today is German Volkstrauertag and we were part of the church procession to the local war memorial. I think art, specifically memorials should not require any more explanation than can fit on an inscription, the imagery should be self-evident or at least powerful. Most modern memorials are not and generally leave me dissatisfied because I don't get the feeling they convey anything but the designers conceit.
This too, although I can vaguely make out that the columns are suppose to represent the chimneys of crematoria. I dislike this one the most because of its flamboyance, as you walk through the stacks, you are assailed by what is supposed to be the smell of burning bodies. I can tell you from personal experience that the smell is not that of burning human bodies, that smells more like when you burn burgers or baby bacl ribs on the grill.
