The first memorial resembles a tomb stone. Set apart from the sidewalk by a leafy enclave, the stone bears the inscription: "To the victims of National Socialism 1933-1945." The inscription does not suggest to the viewer who these victims are, but one can imagine that it refers as much to the Jews in death camps as it does to those Germans who fought in the Wehrmacht or were persecuted or ostracized for other reasons. Thus, there is an implied indication for Germans to identify with the larger victim group. This implication is strengthened by the fact that National Socialism itself is the aggressor. Human actors, such as fascists or the Germans themselves, are excluded from this memorial, allowing the viewer to distance him- or herself from the immediacy of personal guilt, shame, or responsibility. The only actor in this equation is a disembodied and largely defunct ideology, all else inherits the coveted status of persecuted victim of the Third Reich.
The inclusion of dates also brings up the issue as to why the deaths caused by the early fights in the streets, largely between Communist and Nazi gangs, are not included in this invisible list of victims. Those street fighters and communists killed during the fights can also be considered victims of National Socialism, but they are not included due to the cut-off date of 1933. Thus, the memorial goes a step further in specifying the crimes of National Socialism. The aggressor is not simply the ideology or the party, but this party once it is in power and part and parcel of the state itself. Here again, however, human actors are removed from the issue. National Socialism and the state acted against these victims, but the Germans themselves are not inherently indicted by the memorial.
The nature of the second memorial highlights even further the significance of the first memorial as a way of relativizing the Nazi past through comparison with other historical events. The second memorial, but forty feet away, also consists of a stone resembling a tombstone and includes the inscription: "To the victims of Stalinism." These two memorials are almost physically identical, and furthermore the placement order of the stones does not indicate their relative importance due to the fact that the order of viewing depends entirely on in where the pedestrian viewer is headed. Thus, Stalinism is in a sense equated with the horrors of the Third Reich, and, by extension, this correlation implies that the Holocaust itself is not a unique event. Rather, it is but one piece of evidence of the violent trend symptomatic of human history in the twentieth century.
The juxtaposition of these two memorials also leads to a distancing of the past, both temporally and geographically. While indeed the effects of Stalinism were felt in Germany, Stalin's policies originated many miles from Germany in Russia, where one could argue that the majority of the effects were felt as well. This stela memorializes the victims of an ideology or policy largely removed from German influence, input, or control. Placing this memorial on par with the memorial to Nazi victims suggests that both ideologies are equally distant, both in terms of historical time and political influence. Thus, these two memorials mitigate the immediacy of the wrongs perpetuated by Germans, both the big war criminals as well as the common man who did not oppose the Nazi regime. Distant are the perpetrators, but their victims, German and otherwise are close and remembered.
Clearly these seemingly minor memorials indicate a host of issues related to vergangenheitsbewältigung in West Germany. The inscriptions on the memorials and their placement in the same park imply a German identification with the victims while assigning blame to an ideology in absolute control, against which resistance is futile. The memorials succeed further in relativizing the Holocaust through equation with Stalinism and in distancing the potential for German agency as well as the immediacy of German guilt. These memorials thus reveal that the issues of the Historikerstreit have a very real and tangible manifestation on the streets of Berlin. They are not alone.
Next: Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg
