by Rainer Huhle

In many memorials to the victims of National Socialism (NS), or Nazism, and other places of remembrance of the NS era, using the past as a reference point has become a pressing question. This is due to the growing percentage of visitors who do not experience the emphatic anti-fascist impulse that many members of the first postwar generation experience, because they have grown up in a completely different world, with other important issues. As the 37th Day of Remembrance in Weimar in May 2002 demonstrated, the staff at the numerous memorials respond differently to this challenge, which in the end questions the meaning of historical memorials.

A comprehensive exhibit of the NS buildings and their role in the general system of National Socialism was opened in Nuremberg at the end of 2001on the Party Rally Grounds (Reichsparteitaggelaende) in a section of the so-called Congress Hall designed for this purpose. It was developed from a simple pre-existing exhibition within the “Zeppelin Grandstand” that was only open part of the year. […]