A public space to debate and discuss how to memorialize past human rights abuse so that it will never again occur.

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Memory and Justice: www.memoryandjustice.org

Discussion of Herbert Baum Gedenkstein

When memorials become ideologically problematic, is it better to get rid of them––or to add to them? The original Herbert Baum memorial reflected the ideology of communist East Germany. But rather than destroying the memorial or leaving it as an outdated relic of the GDR’s collective memory of WWII, the Plexiglas plaques, added after Germany reunified, allow the monument and its original inscriptions to stand and represent the moment in history in which they were created. Instead of replacing one version of the past with a current perception, the plaques and the visible inscriptions beneath remind the visitor that interpretations and perceptions of the past are in constant flux as societies themselves transition. Rather than erase the past as perceived by the GDR under communist rule and rhetoric, the Herbert Baum Group Memorial now creatively preserves a version of history that cannot simply be forgotten, while offering a more inclusive and democratic version of the past.

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