Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial, Holocaust memorial in Innere Stadt, Vienna, Austria.
The Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial is a steel and reinforced concrete block measuring 10 by 7 meters and 3.8 meters high, its outer faces cast as inward-facing library shelves whose book spines are hidden. The double doors have no handles and do not open. The base bears the names of concentration and extermination camps where Austrian Jews were killed.
The site came about after a design competition won by artist Rachel Whiteread and was unveiled on October 25, 2000. The project emerged from an initiative to create a lasting marker for the victims.
The memorial's name in German is "Mahnmal für die 65.000 ermordeten österreichischen Juden und Jüdinnen der Shoah". Its cast shelves hold 6,640 apparent books, all copies of one edition, referring to the victims and to Judaism as the "People of the Book". The doors have no handles and never open.
The memorial stands on Judenplatz in Vienna's first district, a paved square closed to through traffic. The engraved inscription and Star of David lie on the floor directly before the sealed double doors, so approach from that side to read them. The documentation centre and museum are in the neighbouring Misrachi-Haus.
Beneath the memorial lie archaeological remains of a medieval synagogue destroyed in 1420. These hidden layers connect different periods of Jewish history at this location.
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