The Chairman of the Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse, characterised the decision by the Foundation’s Board of Trustees regarding the structural and thematic concept for the planned Information Centre as a pioneering one. »This represents a further step in the process of realising the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the associated Information Centre,« said the Bundestag President at a press conference in Berlin.
At its meeting on 6.7.2000, the Board of Trustees decided that the Information Centre, which according to the Resolution by the German Bundestag of 25.6.1999 is to supplement the field of steles by Peter Eisenman, would be built underground in the south eastern corner of the Memorial site.
In making this decision, the members of the Board of Trustees followed the conceptional proposal by the architect Peter Eisenman to integrate the Information Centre as a supplementary but also sophisticated element in the overall concept which does not impinge on the field of steles. The design envisages 800 square meters of exhibition space and some 1500 square meters in total.
In addition, the Board of Trustees reached agreement on the essential features of the Information Centre’s content. A working group had previously been given the task of formulating and elaborating these features, and the results of its work envisage the centre as having four thematic spaces: the »Room of Silence«, the »Room of Fates«, the »Room of Names« and the »Room of Places«. Furthermore, plans for the centre include a generous multifunctional foyer. The working group will continue to work on the concrete form of these thematic rooms. In a further step, exhibition coordinators and designers will be brought in to work on visualisation, design and media aspects.
