Berlin Holocaust memorial defiled by neo-Nazis--also tourists
BERLIN -- The German authorities were preparing for criticism from the Jewish community after it was revealed that a Holocaust memorial in Berlin was being used as a public lavatory by tourists and by neo-Nazi sympathisers.
The disclosure, in a Berlin newspaper, will trigger a new debate about how the Holocaust should be remembered in Germany...The managers of the memorial, which attracts 3.5 million visitors a year, have tried to play down the scandal.
“This just belongs to the teething problems of any new monument,” Uwe Neumaerker, of the Memorial Foundation, said. The German Government has been aware of the problem since the monument was completed in May 2005 but has tried to maintain a silence for fear of encouraging more vandalism.
Read entire article at Times (of London)
The disclosure, in a Berlin newspaper, will trigger a new debate about how the Holocaust should be remembered in Germany...The managers of the memorial, which attracts 3.5 million visitors a year, have tried to play down the scandal.
“This just belongs to the teething problems of any new monument,” Uwe Neumaerker, of the Memorial Foundation, said. The German Government has been aware of the problem since the monument was completed in May 2005 but has tried to maintain a silence for fear of encouraging more vandalism.