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CNN Sunday Morning

Holocaust Museum Opens in Berlin

Aired September 09, 2001 - 08:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, people from around the world are gathering to remember the Holocaust at a new Jewish museum in the city where in began, Berlin.

The story from CNN's Chris Burns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jagged edges and a full metal jacket set the tone. A few blocks from Adolph Hitler's chancellory, the Jewish museum has stood as an empty shell for two years amid wrangling over what to put inside.

Nonetheless, it has stood as a virtual Holocaust memorial. From the museum's underground access, one corridor leads to a Holocaust tower. The architectural void as a memorial to loss. Another leads to a garden of exile. Olive trees grow from the columns as a sign of peace and hope.

The museum is reopening with exhibits showing 2,000 years of German Jewish history to compliment the building itself.

Daniel Libeskind, a Polish-born Jew who designed the building, says he intended to focus on the Holocaust.

DANIEL LIBESKIND, ARCHITECT: Of course, that's an aspect we can never really get away from, but with exhibits, the aspects will throw the successes of this incredible Jewish German culture, what it produced -- the Albert Einsteins, the Shaumbergs, the Liebermans, and the two together I think will show the balance.

BURNS: Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal, a German-born Jew who fled the Holocaust, is the Museum's director.

MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL, MUSEUM DIRECTOR: We show how German Jews helped and participated in the building of a modern German nation.

BURNS (on camera): To capture more glimpses of Jewish life, the museum is asking for keepsakes, pictures, mementos, anything to preserve the memory of individuals, of families, and their fates.

One of those who came forward is Ralph Bachman (ph).

(voice-over): Bachman's (ph) uncle, Billy Bornstein (ph), was among some 1,000 Jews who sailed to Havana in 1938, only to return to Europe, turned away by the Cuban and U.S. governments.

Before he was sent to his death at Auschwitz, Bornstein (ph) wrote about what was later made into a film, titled "Voyage of the Damned."

RALPH BACHMAN, NEPHEW OF A HOLOCAUST VICTIM (through translator): We were cruising along the coast of Palm Beach in Miami, full of yearning to see the American coast, but not getting there.

This museum is lucky for Jews, and for the German people. Like a thorn in the side of Berlin, it was purposely designed by Libeskind as a lightening strike on Berlin. It's supposed to hit you right in the heart and stay on people's minds.

BURNS: His mementos are among 3,900 artifacts filling the museum, intended to speak as loudly as the spaces that will forever remain unfilled.

Chris Burns, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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