Holocaust memorial landscapes in Germany

Holocaust memorial landscapes in Germany encompass a large group of commemorative works dealing with the outdoor built environment.

American feminist historian Claudia Koonz evaluates this difference between memorializing the Holocaust as the perpetrator, rather than the victim.

Critics, such as Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn, claim that the design still engenders a subordination of the commemoration to the landscape itself, therefore playing into the national socialist ideals which caused the Holocaust.

[5] Memorial landscapes and gardens which commemorate the losses of the Holocaust also exist on sites which were not directly related to the crimes of the Nazi regime.

Rather than sealing off this disturbing aspect of German history, these commemorative landscapes attempt to bring their memory into the present public consciousness.

She employed a high level of symbolism, including benches with etchings such as "The ocean washes the dead" that render them undesirable to sit upon, creating discomfort for the visitor.

The apple tree itself adds to the symbolism of the garden, Holzer states it is meant to evoke Biblical notions of man's curiosity about doing wrong.