GERMANY: A CONTROVERSIAL POSTER INTENDS TO RAISE DONATIONS FOR A MEMORIAL IN BERLIN TO HOLOCAUST VICTIMS

Record ID: 343210

  • Title: GERMANY: A CONTROVERSIAL POSTER INTENDS TO RAISE DONATIONS FOR A MEMORIAL IN BERLIN TO HOLOCAUST VICTIMS
  • Date: 19th July 2001
  • Summary: (W4) BERLIN, GERMANY (JULY 19, 2001)(REUTERS) 1. SLV OF PLACARD READING (GERMAN) - THE HOLOCAUST NEVER HAPPENED 0.05 2. PAN ACROSS PLACARD 0.13 3. SV/SLV BERLIN MAYOR KLAUS WOWEREIT AND LEA ROSH, HEAD OF FOUNDATION FOR MEMORIAL TO THE MURDERED JEWS OF EUROPE, STANDING IN FRONT OF POSTER BEFORE NEWS CONFERENCE; POSTER (2 SHOTS) 0.22 4
  • Embargoed: 3rd August 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA6V10TPJGAI29YXIMI3WCRACYR
  • Story Text: The Holocaust never happened. This is the
    controversial phrase that has been plastered on billboards
    across Germany as part of a campaign to raise donations for a
    memorial in Berlin to Holocaust victims.



    Politicians, religious leaders and members of the
    Foundation for the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe,
    introduced the campaign to journalists at the future site of
    the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin on Thursday (July 19).

    The slogan, which appears over a picture of a serene
    mountain lake and a snow-capped mountain, is intended to shake
    up the indifferent and motivate the hesitant.

    A much smaller text underneath the statement reveals the
    real message of the campaign: There are still many people who
    make this claim. In 20 years there could be even more. Make a
    donation to the memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe.

    The Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of
    Europe hopes to raise five million marks ($2.18 million) and
    give Germans the feeling that the memorial is theirs.

    The memorial, to be constructed later this year not far
    from Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate, was designed by the
    American architect Peter Eisenmann, who wants to give visitors
    a sense of
    unease and loneliness as they wander in a field of concrete
    blocks the size of four soccer pitches.

    Since the German state has already promised 50 million
    marks to cover the cost of construction, the money raised in
    the campaign will be spent on equipment and other items for an
    information centre which will also form part of the memorial.

    The campaign started on Thursday and involves posters,
    free postcards and newspaper advertisements. The foundation
    has also set up a special telephone line where one call
    automatically bills the caller five marks over their regular
    bill.

    Denial of the Holocaust is illegal in Germany and
    punishable with jail.

    The use of the highly-charged advertising slogan comes at
    a time when the Holocaust is very much in the public eye,
    after a court in Britain branded the historian David Irving a
    holocaust denier and following the publication of a
    controversial book by Norman Filkenstein called The Holocaust
    Industry.

    The book, which argues that the Holocaust is used as a
    weapon for political and economic gain, has become a
    bestseller in Germany since a translation was published here
    in February.

    Berlin's Holocaust memorial is due to open by January 27,
    2004, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz
    concentration camp by Russian troops advancing west.


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