Berlin Jewish chief protests Holocaust memorial designs

BERLIN, Feb. 12 (JTA) — A German Jewish leader has joined the growing chorus of voices protesting the final designs for a national Holocaust monument here. Andreas Nachama, the head of Berlin’s Jewish community, said the four finalists in the competition produced designs that lack focus. He also criticized the plans for their lack of artistic reference to the history of the site in central Berlin, which during World War II was next to Nazi ministries and the Reich chancellery and then became part of the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. Nachama, a museum curator, urged time for more public debate over the monument’s design, noting that there was nearly a decade of discussion before the construction of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel. The criticism could delay the final decision on the construction of the monument, which sponsors hoped to start early next year. A group of 19 prominent intellectuals, including the German novelist Gunther Grass, recently went even further in their criticism, declaring the winning designs abstract and cold. They called for a halt to monument plans and suggested other forms of Holocaust commemoration. The current competition was held after an initial contest failed to produce a design that met the approval of the three sponsors — the German government, the Berlin state government and a private sponsor.