Would Arad advocate we dispose of all the evidence of the death camps at Auschwtiz and replace them with some artistic expression designed to express feelings about the crimes committed there?

“There’s not a single, universal and correct way to understand what happened that day” Arad says. Which would be fine – if you did not first eradicate all the authentic evidence of what did happen that day. If that is truly your goal, why not return the damaged Koenig Sphere? Arad told me that would be “didactic.” It would tell us what to think. But disposing of an authentic artifact is not “didactic?” Does the USS Arizona dictate “a single universal and correct way to understand what happened that day?”

Or is that a crock – nothing but an exericise in egotism?

“…build a moment of silence and how we use that is a very personal matter?”

Not here it’s not. Is a visit to Auschwitz such a personal matter that we wipe out evidence of the death camps? We do not here have the option of not confronting the crime committed here. We have an obligation to those who died that we preserve and faithfully convey how and why they died. Forget that, as Arad does, convinced that our only obligation at this place is to ourselves, and we betray their memory.

The building behind the 9/11 Memorial is the 9/11 Memorial Museum, designed by Snohetta. It isn’t open yet, but will be opening soon:

http://www.911memorial.org/design
http://www.911memorial.org/sites/all/files/Snohetta%20design%20statement.pdf

We’ll be reporting more on the museum soon!

-Jill from Inhabitat

Jeffrey Schreier was killed on 9/11 while working at Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm based in the World Trade Center that was nearly wiped out in the attacks. But on the memorial unveiled this weekend, Schreier’s first name was misspelled as “Jeffery,” a spokesman for the memorial, Michael Frazier, said. There has also been controversy over how to organize the victims’ names. At first, the idea was to arrange them without any order, because of the random nature of the way the victims died. But after family members and firefighters complained, the plan changed. Spouses and family members are grouped together, as are co-workers from companies in the tower. First responders’ names are engraved in a ribbon on a parapet overlooking the south reflecting pool, and are grouped by command, precinct or company. There is no grouping by rank, however, for either firefighters or police officers.