Experiencing the Void: Architectural Representation of the Trauma of the Holocaust

Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Bryn Mawr College. Department of History of Art
Type
Thesis
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
eng
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Dark Archive until 2017-08-01, afterwards Haverford users only.
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
Different countries have a different relationship to the Holocaust, and as such, represent their relationship in varied ways. These relationships have produced levels of trauma that differ across countries and across generations. Different museums around the world work to interpret and represent these relationships with regards to that country's national identity and relationship with the Holocaust. Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum Berlin in Germany uses a dark, eerie void-–Holocaust Tower-–to represent the irreplaceable loss of 80,000 Jews to Berlin. In Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, designed by Moshe Safdie employs two different architectural spaces, the Hall of Names and the viewpoint of Jerusalem, to remind visitors that there are Jews who currently thrive in Israel, asking visitors to plant themselves in the future. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on the National Mall in Washington DC, designed by James Ingo Freed, has a hexagonal, airy, spiritual hall called the Hall of Remembrance, which allows visitors to sit with the horror of the Holocaust but also inspires unbridled remembrance or reflection. No void is "correct" or serves as the "model" for all other voids. Nor is there a particular element that must be used for a void to be considered done right. It must allow for recognition of an emptiness, but this does not mean necessarily being empty.
Description
Citation