From the beginning, it was clear to me, irrespective of the outcome of the story, that the most vital part of such story would be to show the connection of this « Jewish Berlin» to our actual society and the interaction with the world, and above all, to put the human element in the foreground of the story.
Having said this, and the difficulties to establish a contact in a Jewish community for a « real life » story, I chose to focus on the legacy of the holocaust. For me the most actual legacy is « The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin » being understood that it is, with its permanent exhibition, one of the most visited places in Berlin. Thus, I got the idea to portrait « the world » coming to the Memorial remembering the victims while shortly interviewing each portrayed person to their background and origins.
It was a very enriching experience to portrait in 2 days persons with origins from a large number of countries and with the most diverse backgrounds. The world comes to the memorial, life is taking place at the memorial (selfies, children playing hide and seek, mourning people, young couples in love…)
Peter Eisenmann, the architect of the Memorial, called the Memorial a place of a different memory. The Memorial is exactly that, because it is “WOVEN INTO LIFE” as one of my portrayed characters said: the world comes to and lives in this place.
And as to the « world » coming to the Memorial, another portrayed character said « in the end we are all one ». I like to use photography as a tool to show the unifying force of human beings, their uniqueness and their fragility in a societal context.
