Judenplatz

Description:

• As the name suggests, this was the site of the city's first Jewish ghetto dating as far back as the 12th century. It remained at the heart of the Jewish community for centuries and is now, appropriately enough, the site of a controversial Holocaust Mahnmal, a giant concrete cast of a library designed by the British sculptor Rachel Whiteread. Originally earmarked to be unveiled in 1996 on the 58th anniversary of the Kristallnacht, the monument provoked opposition from local residents and traders because the area was previously used by them as a car park. Matters were further complicated while digging the fundations for the memorial by the discovery of some smoke-blackened remains of a medieval synagogue burnt to the ground during the pogroms in 1421. The memorial was nevertheless given the go-ahead, while a new museum situated in the Misrachi-Haus, a Jewish cultural center at No. 8, will give access to the archeological remains.
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