7 Facts about Holocaust Memorial Visited by Singer Syahrini

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian singer Syahrini photographed at the Holocaust Memorial or Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe has drawn public intention. Netizens criticized Syahrini's act that boarded one of the tombs allegedly a monument of honor at the site.

Recently, German media Berliner Morgenpost also highlighted the behavior of Syahrini which considered a sensitive issue for many people. The reason is that the Holocaust Memorial is a place of remembrance about genocide or mass slaughter against the Jews by the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler.

In addition to Syahrini, a number of visitors uploading photos of the Holocaust Memorial was once critically discussed. Many guests are known to be a flock of students got a reprimand by the German Government due to taking pictures with poses that allegedly disrespect the site.

When started as a hot topic in social media, people showed interest in Holocaust Memorial. Cited from a number of sources, here are the facts about the museum inaugurated in 2005.

1. The Holocaust Memorial building is designed by the American architect Peter Eisenman, who also designed the City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The building is built on 19 thousand square meters of land.

2. The field is covered with grid patterns across the site. There are 2,711 concrete slabs of concrete or stelae in various height. Visitors are allowed to walk between the stalae which looks like a labyrinth.

3. The iconic stalae has the same length and width of 2.38 meters x 0.95 meters. But the height varies ranging from 0.2 meters to 4.8 meters.

4. The site is not a place for narcissistic photography. The page Visit Berlin says the museum is a memorial building for contemplation and remembering dark past. However, many tourists coming only to take their self-image, even climb on some stalae.

5. There had been a long debate within the German parliament when the planning of a memorial site for the murdered Jews in Europe initiated, including its design and purpose. Furthermore, when the museum was inaugurated, Paul Spiegel as the head of Central Council of Jews in Germany criticized the museum for being too abstract.

6. The controversy continues to arise. The Washington Post had written the first unpleasant news after the site opened. A group of people reportedly jumped from one stalae to another which lead the government to consider whether this museum really is a place to commemorate the genocide event. Another surprising report came that a vandalism occurred on the site. Some tourists reportedly wrote ‘I heart Berlin’ on one side of the tomb. While other tourists caught having self-portrait using selfie stick.

7. At the Holocaust Memorial, precisely in the Tiergarten Park, a similar memorial located to dedicate Sinti and Roma. The monument, according to the A View On Cities website, is said to have been built to commemorate homosexuals who were persecuted under the Nazi regime.

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA | A VIEW ON CITIES | VISIT BERLIN | WIKIPEDIA