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Ways of looking: Observation and transformation at the Holocaust Memorial, Berlin

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, iritdekel{at}gmail.com

Observation is one of the core actions at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. Observing fellow visitors, photographing and looking at photos at the memorial transcend its actual time and probe its space and the boundaries of discourse about the past. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this article focuses on the ways visitors experience the memorial, and argues that in taking and looking at photos at the memorial and observing other visitors and the scene, visitors create a space for self-realization and transformation, in which they explore their relations to the past and to present memory politics. They do so through reflection on the memorial's lack of stated meaning, alongside the impossibility of representing the Holocaust.

Key Words: memory • photography • Germany • play • authenticity

Memory Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, 71-86 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1750698008097396


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