Holocaust commemoration and the creation of living memory: How the Jewish Museum Berlin, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe assert the past in the fabric of the present

Author Andreas Huyssen recognizes a contemporary fascination with "memory politics," while Ruth Ellen Gruber finds that a growing interest in "things Jewish" has spread throughout Europe in the recent past. Both of these claims help to promote the need and desire for greater Holocaust commemoration, especially in the city of Berlin where the Nazi regime began. Through the investigation of the architectural and programmatic design of Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum Berlin and Contemporary Jewish Museum, as well as Peter Eisenman's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, this thesis explores numerous interpretations of the representation of the past in the present. Multiple "memory discourses" are examined as a means of understanding the larger process of commemoration. The continued questioning of these devices broadens the discussion to include the need for both a "space for memory," as well as a "space for history" when wishing to create a sufficient commemorative experience.