Rooted in empathy: landscape at the centre of German Holocaust memorials
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In discussions of commemorative spatial practices, landscape has often been relegated to the background of more figured forms of architecture and sculpture. This paper presents three recent landscape-based Holocaust Memorial projects – Esterwegen Concentration Camp, Platform 17 Memorial, and Memorial Place at Mühldorfer Hart – which centre on trees to address key themes of absence and resilience. Unlike the German Holocaust memorials that rely on Minimalist forms to communicate, these projects embrace ambiguity and process. In doing so, these projects present a powerful counterpoint to the dehumanising abstraction of other Holocaust sites. Through these case studies, this discussion will engage memorial scholarship by James E. Young, Jacky Bowring, and Andrew Shanken to illuminate how landscape can create complex and enduring memorial narratives. Using the author’s site photos, the project designers’ published documentation, and key theoretical works, this paper will compare these projects to suggest new strategies for spatialising memory.
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Link to article (paywalled), Rooted in empathy: landscape at the centre of German Holocaust memorials
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Rooted in empathy: landscape at the centre of German Holocaust memorials. 2025: https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1080/01426397.2025.2527310
