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SIGN OF A CRUMBLING MYTH?

Cracks appear in Holohoax façade

Cracks spread in Berlin Holocaust memorial: study

The hideous Holocaust memorial in Berlin is showing signs of serious wear and tear just three years after its completion, with cracks in more than half of its concrete blocks, according to a study published on Monday.

Structural engineer Joachim Schulz conducted a survey of the field of blocks located in Berlin's central Mitte district at the end of last year for Germany's Cicero magazine.

Almost fourteen hundred of the 2,711 blocks that make up the site are beginning to crack, he said in an interview published in the monthly magazine's latest edition.

"Sixty percent of the cracks are minor faults and not really visible but 40 percent are bigger than 0.2 millimeters and that's worrying," said Schulz.

Hindered by design and construction disagreements that attracted global media attention, the memorial was completed in May 2005 at a cost of 27 million euros ($39.1 million).

Couldn't withstand the light of day

Rather like the Holohoax story itself, it seems the memorial can't stand the light of day.

Structural damage to the Holocaust memorial, which covers 19,000 square meters (205,000 square feet), was first recorded in January 2006 when 400-450 blocks were showing cracks.

Holocaust memorial director Uwe Neumaerker told Reuters on Monday the damage was due to sunlight: "We plan to begin repairs as soon as the temperature rises and the weather dries up, probably at the end of March."

A crack in one of the concrete blocks of the "Holocaust Mahnmal" memorial can be seen in Berlin August 8, 2007.
The Holocaust® memorial is showing signs of serious wear and tear just three years after its completion, with cracks
in more than half of the concrete chunks, which could not withstand exposure to the Sun.

Berlin Holocaust Memorial Used as Toilet
Berlin's macabre Holocaust Memorial has attracted millions of visitors since it was inaugurated in May 2005. However, some of these visitors have shown little respect for the memorial -- and have used it as a public toilet.

Just days after Holocaust Memorial Day, it has emerged that Berlin's Holocaust Memorial has been used for a highly inappropriate purpose by members of the public. In the first few months after it opened in May 2005, the memorial in Berlin's city center was used as a public urinal.

The memorial -- officially known as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe -- is made up of 2,711 concrete slabs, each 95 centimeters apart, and set in an area 19,000 square meters, the size of three football fields. It lies just next to the historic Brandenburg Gate and has many dark passages separating the slabs, that are barely visible from the exterior. It seems that many tourists and passers-by availed of this relative privacy to relieve themselves in a place that is intended to commemorate the fate of Europe's Jews under the Nazis. The memorial, which cost €25.3 million to build, has been seen as a major success, attracting 3.5 million visitors in its first year alone.

Unfortunately, some of those who entered the memorial showed a singular lack of respect. According to a report in Monday's Berliner Zeitung a "massive" amount of urination occurred in the first months after the memorial was inaugurated. The problem was revealed in a side note to a report that Berlin's Culture Minister Bernd Neumann submitted to the federal parliament's budget committee.

The foundation that operates the memorial had not made the problem public before, so as to prevent others from following the bad example. The director of the foundation, Uwe Neumärker, told the Berliner Zeitung, "I would put it down to the memorial's teething problems."

A wooden pavilion with shops and toilets was erected in the spring of 2006 and since then the problem has noticeably reduced, according to the culture minister's report.

However, the problem did re-emerge during last year's World Cup. A fan mile next to the Brandenburg Gate attracted as many as 1 million visitors on some days who watched the football games on giant screens. And many of them used the memorial as a toilet, despite the fact that a large park is right across the street.

Now Neumärker is calling for the temporary pavilion to be replaced with permanent service buildings, including public toilets.