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Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse Opens the Holocaust Memorial (May 10, 2005)

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What contemporary witnesses can still recount so forcefully today must be conveyed in the future by museums, by art. We are currently in the midst of a generational change, an epochal change, as some are saying: National Socialism, war, and organized genocide are becoming less and less the lived experience of contemporary witnesses and more and more the events of history; they are changing from personal, individually authenticated memories into collective memory conveyed thorough knowledge. The memorial is an expression of this transition.

This is not, as some fear, the end, the lapidary endpoint of our public engagement with our Nazi history. Rather, it transmits this unsettling memory into the cultural memory of the Germans without diminishing its power to unsettle. The memorial will remain a bone of contention; the quarrel over it will continue, of that I am certain. After all, it does not refute all the arguments that have been leveled against it. It does not assert a monopolistic claim to commemoration; the information center makes reference to the actual sites where the murderous events took place and to other commemorative sites. Its dedication remains controversial.

The dedication of such a memorial is surely no occasion for festive celebration. But for me, as the person who commissioned this memorial, it is an occasion to thank all those involved – for the fact that the Bundestag resolution has now been realized.

• The impetus for this memorial came from a civic initiative. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Förderkreis [group of sponsors], represented by Lea Rosh and Eberhard Jäckel – for their patient impatience, for the unswerving, stubborn commitment with which they have shepherded the project to this day.

• My thanks go to the architect Peter Eisenman for his brilliant design and, yes – also for his patience.

• My thanks go to Dagmar von Wilcken, the quiet, sensitive, meticulous designer of the information center.

• My thanks go to the Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority and to all of the other kindred memorial sites that have supported us in so many ways. That Yad Vashem should work with us is surely not a given, it humbles us, it honors us, it sets a challenge for the future.

• My thanks go to the Jewish families, to the Holocaust survivors who opened their personal archives for us and made the testimonies of their lives and suffering available to us.

• My thanks go to the Board of Trustees, the Advisory Council, and the Office of the Foundation for their diligent participation in discussion and hard work.

• And, not least, my thanks go to all those who were involved in the practical realization of the structure: the supervising construction companies, the craftsmen, the construction workers.

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