The location of the former SS special camp / Hinzert concentration camp is characterized by scenic idyll: all authentic traces of the place have disappeared. The contemporary examination of the history of the camp cannot therefore be based on architectural or other spatial relics. Compensating for the lack of historical material through reconstruction or simulation seems questionable. Rather, what seems necessary is an approach that makes the ambivalence of today's idyll and past crime the actual theme. In the confrontation with the landscape, creative means are developed that make borders visible in a simple way and allow a building to emerge from the topography that, as a distortion of the landscape, makes it clear that the idyll in this place is deceptive. With the new documentation and meeting house in the centre, a network of historical sites (e.g. quarry, trenches for mass shootings) covers the landscape and thus explains the systematics of the SS camp. Information, learning and dealing with history is becoming increasingly important in addition to commemoration due to the gradual disappearance of the generation of contemporary witnesses and is the task of this house.
Source: Wandel Lorch Architekten
Pictures: Norbert Miguletz
