Dealing with the Past in Spaces, Places, Actions, and Institutions of Memory: Site Visits

The guide for site visit tour was Elke Gryglewski, the head of the Education Department of the House of the Wannsee Conference.

Conference participants visited the following sites:

Wittenberg Platz Memorial
Bayerisches Viertel
Levetzowstraße Deportation Memorial
The House of the Wannsee Conference
Track 17 Grunewald Station
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe,
Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted under the National Socialist Regime
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under the National Socialist Regime

The sites visited offered a wide range in terms of location, use of the space, timing of memorial’s creation, nature of the memorial, identity of those being remembered. Such a broad exposure permitted participants to reflect again on many of the conference topics such as the need to name both victims and perpetrators; the hierarchy of victims; the role of bystanders; the initiators of commemoration; the political and societal context in which commemoration occurs.