This memorial, which is also known as the Holocaust Memorial, is an ensemble of 2,711 concrete slabs erected in a 19,000 m2 site, a block away from the Brandendurg Gate in Berlin. Based on a design by the Jewish architect Peter Eisenman, the memorial has both evoked criticism and sparked outrage in various circles. While many decry its seemingly too-abstract presentation of the monstrosities inflicted on Jews in Europe, the artist himself has largely refrained from providing any clues into the significance of the giant slabs. One popular interpretation however signals out the resemblance of the site to a cemetery where the uneven ground is the result of years and years of stacking up of the corpses in a small surface area.
Though this Soviet memorial is not as central as the one in Tiergarten, it still attracts a good number of visitors, especially on Victory in Europe Day (V Day) when thousands flow to the memorial to pay respect to the fallen Russian soldiers in the Battle of Berlin and lay wreaths at the foot of its central monument. This 12m tall statue depicts a Russian soldier holding a German child standing over a broken swastika and commemorates the heroism of Sergeant of Guards Nikolai Masalov who risked his life under heavy German machine-gun fire to rescue a three-year-old German girl.
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