This holocaust memorial does not memorialize atrocities. It explores what we learn from history; the insight is that stories mislead. The memorial consists of several installations that represent stories that have created conflicts rather than resolutions. The message at the end of the memorial presents the need for a paradigm shift, moving from stories that divide us to the recognizing the plot of stories as the unifying science-based moral paradigm.
The white sculptures are a metaphor for the loving relationship between the book, the Torah, and ‘the People of the Book’. The tall figure, the groom, is a rabbi. He has a big nose, a scroll on his shoulder and a hand pointing to Jerusalem. The smaller sculpture resembles a book. It is the Torah, a book that is loved like a bride. Bride is a good metaphor for the deep love of the book, the words of God. Indeed love of women was modeled by the love of the Bible.
A bleak installation presents the deadly destructiveness of Hitler’s ideology. He justified his actions by proclaiming pseudo-scientific evidence of the racial inferiority of the Jews.. This monument consists of a pyramid of violated safe deposit boxes, featuring Hitler on the top box, 'ueber alles', behind bars. The uber ales pyramid is surrounded by furnaces; one of them has a swastika,
Marx’s socialism justified the war of classes, the revolt of the proletariat against the capitalists. The monument for Marx features fine Russian metal sculptures by Nicolai Melnikoff. They are on top of three sets of red violated deposit boxes: the first sculpture presents the hands of Armageddon holding weapons, the second, the hand of the crucifix giving a blessing, while a peg goes through his hand, and the third is a nutcracker waving a sword while the king of the rats emerges from his cannon.
Freud’s station features two chapels, one for Venus and the other for Penis misidentifying the unconscious as driven to generation of conflict rather than resolution.
Marx and Freud, the two Jewish thinkers, inspired revolutions during the 20th century. Marx sought to reduce financial inequities, Freud sought to reduce mental illness caused by the repression of emotions. Both introduced social revolutions that upset the conservative public and generated antisemitism.
This memorial has a positive message. While stories mislead, we are pointing out conflict resolution upon a shift of paradigms from stories to what is universal in all stories-- the plot. We're introducing the unconscious creative process as driven by the need to resolve conflict as manifested in all stories. We associate the shift of paradigms with Prometheus stealing the fire of the gods, also illustrated with Jacob wrestling with God. In our contemporary reality, this is the role assumed by Gorbachov who was able to demystify communism-- a story-- by pointing out the need for openness and restructuring. He freed us from communism, unfortunately without providing the public with an alternative moral paradigm. This is the role of the formal theory ushered in by this holocaust memorial.
The wolf represents my cautioning the believers of stories as naive.