More than two decades after it was first proposed, the cornerstone for a Jewish museum in Berlin was finally laid there on Nov. 9, the 54th anniversary of Kristallnacht.
The museum, which is shaped like a lightning bolt, is really an extension of the Berlin Museum designed to house a Jewish collection. It was designed by an acclaimed American Jewish architect, Daniel Libeskind, who won an international competition for the museum’s design in June 1989.
The Polish-born Libeskind, whose parents lost many relatives in the Holocaust, said last year, “Even though I am not German, I am really from here. It is as if I have worked on this project my whole life.”
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen recalled the fact that the Jewish Museum is one of the very few new public projects that Berlin is still financing despite its tight budget.
The museum was a hot item of dispute only last year.
In August 1991, Berlin municipal officials approved an outlay of some $1.7 million for “further planning” of the museum.
The municipality’s expenditure for the museum was far short of the originally planned allocation of about $8 million.
It is believed the project will cost a total of nearly $69 million. It was originally scheduled for completion by 1995 but is now slated for 1998.
The museum is going up against a backdrop of constant attacks by right-wing extremists against foreigners, asylum hostels, Jews and Jewish sites. Diepgen pointed out that Germany will not tolerate any extremist violence or anti- Semitism.
The minister for cultural affairs, Ulrich Roloff-Momin, said that the museum cannot be separated from current events.
“If we do not learn from history — and museums are the appropriate place for this — it is as if the victims of the (Nazi) terror have died another senseless death,” he said.
The director of the Berlin Museum, Rolf Bothe, said he was recently asked whether it is proper for such a museum to also serve as a memorial.
“The answer is simple,” he said. “As long as concentration camps such as Sachsenhausen are set on fire, it is justified for the new museum to also serve as a memorial.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
