Thursday, November 06, 2008

Great Museums of the World/the Jewish museum in Berlin

I have to admit that I’m not a fan of modern art, but for the first time in my life I am impressed by a museum that is nothing but modern. Unlike any other museums, the Jewish museum in Berlin is not just a place where you find pieces in display along with a brief explanations of what they are. Of course there is a department covering this, it is a museum after all, so you will find many things related to Jewish history in Germany , photos and data about famous Jewish figures, holocaust victims and many of their belongings. But the most impressing parts that really affected me and kept me inspired for days were the parts where you do not “see” things in display but rather become part of an experience. So, for example, you are directed to walk along very dark passages, linking to the hiding, loss and fear that the Jews had to experience during the Nazi regime. You reach a room where it is very dark and very small, something that imitates the rooms where they placed hundreds of people to be gassed to death! Another shocking thing was a corridor where you should walk on iron tiles, shaped like human faces in agony, linking to the mass graves they were burying the bodies in.(I couldn't do that) The most impressive piece was a huge board on the wall and you can only read the writings on it when you face a mirror and look at the board in your back, the writing was designed in such a way so that while reading you are seeing yourself and other people beside you in the same time, linking to the hiding that many people went through, and it is telling you no need to hide anymore. A major work of literature building on this is the diary of Anne Frank, but this needs another post. After the emotionally stressful yet inspiring 4 hours I spent in the museum, I needed a long walk, I was thanking God for being able to walk in the streets, to see and be seen by people, to breath fresh air, to see the sky and feel the wind, to be alive.

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