Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Taktsang Lhakhang, also known as the “Tiger’s Nest”.
Bhutan • 11 days, 10 nights
Festivals & Temples of Bhutan
from
Macchu Picchu
Peru • 10 days, 9 nights
Peru: Machu Picchu & the Last Incan Bridges
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The ‘Old Secretariat’ government building in New Delhi.
The 'Old Secretariat'
This set is inspired by a Roman arena.
Bozdağ Film Platolari
The Sea Water Distilling Plant.
Sea Water Distilling Plant
Contemplative paths.
Ayo Rock Formations
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The sign declares this the number-one gumbo shop in town.
Gumbo Hut Shioya
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
The truth is out there—somewhere.
The Truth Is Out There at the Dreamland Resort (or Should We Say ‘Area 51?’)
19 days ago
Edward Payson Weston
How the 6-Day Race Became an American Spectator Obsession
20 days ago
Alresford Spy Toilet
This Public Bathroom in a Sleepy English Village Was an Epicenter for Cold War Espionage
22 days ago
Manhattan Well
The Manhattan Well: How Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton United to Solve a Murder Mystery
23 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Germany Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Thousands of coffin-like pillars make up this controversial Holocaust memorial.

Berlin, Germany

Added By
ahvenas
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe   ahvenas / Atlas Obscura User
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe   ahvenas / Atlas Obscura User
Memorial in the snow   Chumchum14
Lost amongst the labyrinth of the dead   ahvenas / Atlas Obscura User
Similar but not the same   ahvenas / Atlas Obscura User
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe   de:Benutzer:Schreibkraft
  IgFan / Atlas Obscura User
  IgFan / Atlas Obscura User
  IgFan / Atlas Obscura User
  ellenuski / Atlas Obscura User
  ellenuski / Atlas Obscura User
  Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
  gingercinnamon / Atlas Obscura User
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin (Germany).   Michael Barera / Atlas Obscura User
  gingercinnamon / Atlas Obscura User
  Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
Uneven blocks of the memorial   katielou106 / Atlas Obscura User
The rising and falling path adds to the jarring feeling of the memorial   katielou106 / Atlas Obscura User
  mocchiatto / Atlas Obscura User
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe   Jaszmina Szendrey / Atlas Obscura User
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe   epfromer / Atlas Obscura User
  epfromer / Atlas Obscura User
  moominere / Atlas Obscura User
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - Rémi T.   Zib / Atlas Obscura User
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - Rémi T.   Zib / Atlas Obscura User
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - Rémi T.   Zib / Atlas Obscura User
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - Rémi T.   Zib / Atlas Obscura User
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - Rémi T.   Zib / Atlas Obscura User
  gingercinnamon / Atlas Obscura User
  mate / Atlas Obscura User
  rbenn250 / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

Completed on December 15, 2004, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was built in remembrance of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust. By pairing aesthetic minimalism and a massive scope, the memorial generates an incredibly powerful tension for its visitors. 

Altogether 2,711 unmarked grey concrete "stelae" or slabs cover a city block situated just south of the Brandenberg Gate. Each and every one of the stelae is identical in dimension ( 7' 10" by 3' 1") and eerily reminiscent of coffins, though they vary from eight inches to over 15 feet in height. As a whole, they create a labyrinth where visitors are easily lost, contributing to a pervasive feeling of bewilderment while walking amidst the memorial's network of open-air corridors. 

Since its debut, both praise and criticism have been directed at the memorial. Critics of the work at once find fault in its commemoration of a single demographic victimized by the Nazis rather than the multitude of those affected including large numbers of Europe's Roma and homosexual populations. Still, others find the vagueness of the monument's title disturbing, in that it avoids any assignation of blame for who, exactly, took these individual human lives.

Meanwhile, architectural scholars praise its stylistic execution. As Nicolai Ouroussoff noted, Berlin's monument avoids sentimentality in the face of an internationally affecting event, instead, "showing how abstraction can be the most powerful tool for conveying the complexities of human emotion." All scholarly debate aside, finding a visitor who emerges unmoved by the visual impact of the installation seems unlikely.

Related Tags

Holocaust Memorials Jewish Judaism Labyrinths

Community Contributors

Added By

ahvenas

Edited By

littlebrumble, Simpluree, besartbajrami2, Jaszmina Szendrey...

  • littlebrumble
  • Simpluree
  • besartbajrami2
  • Jaszmina Szendrey
  • EricGrundhauser
  • Zib
  • rbenn250
  • moominere
  • gingercinnamon
  • epfromer
  • katielou106
  • Michael Barera
  • mate
  • mocchiatto
  • Fred Cherrygarden
  • IgFan
  • ellenuski
  • Dra Oli

Published

April 12, 2016

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/2014/11/the-art-of-atrocity-memorial-to.html
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/arts/design/a-forest-of-pillars-recalling-the-unimaginable.html
  • http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-inadequacy-of-berlins-memorial-to-the-murdered-jews-of-europe
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe
  • https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/travel-guide/best-things-to-do-and-see-in-berlin/
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Cora-Berliner-Straße 1
Berlin, 10117
Germany
52.513889, 13.378889
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Führerbunker Parking Lot

Berlin, Germany

miles away

Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism

Berlin, Germany

miles away

Denkzeichen Georg Elser

Berlin, Germany

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Berlin

Berlin

Germany

Places 140
Stories 18

Nearby Places

Führerbunker Parking Lot

Berlin, Germany

miles away

Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism

Berlin, Germany

miles away

Denkzeichen Georg Elser

Berlin, Germany

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Berlin

Berlin

Germany

Places 140
Stories 18

Related Places

  • Budapest, Hungary

    Jewish Ghetto Wall

    Hungarian Jews were ghettoized during the Second World War, but little remains of the original wall that closed the Jewish people off from the rest of the city.

  • The wall.

    Budapest, Hungary

    Ghetto Wall Memorial

    The holes in this wall provide a glimpse into Jewish life in Budapest, both past and present.

  • London, England

    The Wiener Holocaust Library

    One of the world’s leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust, the Nazi era, and genocide, this collection includes published and unpublished works, press cuttings, photographs, and eyewitness testimony.

  • Peoria, Illinois

    Peoria Holocaust Memorial

    A collection of 11 million buttons illustrates the human toll of the Holocaust.

  • A Stumbling Stone memorial in Rome.

    Rome, Italy

    Stumbling Stones of Rome

    Brass cobblestones mark the places where individual Holocaust victims were taken from their homes.

  • The Jewish deportations memorial at platform 16.

    Florence, Italy

    Platform 16 Holocaust Deportation Memorials

    Memorials at a Florence railway station remember the citizens who were deported from Italy and sent to extermination camps.

  • The wall commemorating 11,908 Jewish victims of the Shoah from Frankfurt.

    Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Börneplatz Memorial

    Commemorating Frankfurt's Jewish community and 11,908 victims of the Holocaust.

  • One of the galleries in the modern section of the Manchester Jewish Museum.

    Manchester, England

    Manchester Jewish Museum

    A Victorian synagogue-turned-museum chronicles centuries of Jewish life.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.