Yad Vashem: Moshe Safdie - The Architecture of Memory

Yad Vashem – The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority – was established in 1953 by a law that set up a central institution dedicated to the study and commemoration of the Nazis’ genocide of the Jews and mandated its location in Jerusalem. In 1957 a first building opened, and over the years a series of institutional spaces and memorials, gardens, and artworks were added. This culminated in spring of 2005 with the inauguration of a major new centerpiece, a museum of Holocaust history and ancillary structures, designed by Moshe Safdie. This book explores how architecture copes with commemoration and discusses the work of one of today’s leading architects.