PlanetEye

If you're visiting Berlin, especially for the first time, it is easy to find yourself overwhelmed by the tragedies of the last century and I've known many tourists to shy away from a number of the museums and memorials because it becomes too heartbreaking.

One such site is the Jewish Museum in Mitte, and all I can say is: don't. Don't miss this museum.

The building itself is worth a visit. In 1999 the extension building designed by Daniel Libeskind was opened to the public and for two years visitors toured the still empty construction. As a piece of architecture alone it is impressive and the stylised logo of the museum is actually the floor plan of the Libeskind building.

The tour through the museum starts in the basement, where sloping floors and oddly intersecting corridors display the stories of persecuted and displaced Jews. One corridor ends in the Holocaust Tower, a 24 metre high concrete tower with only a slit for light at the very top. It is disorientating and frightening, a space which creates a very visceral response.

You are then sent to the top floor. On the way are exhibition spaces for temporary art exhibits, one of which is connected to the Fallen Leaves art installation. In this, hundreds of faces cut out of steel are strewn through another open concrete "void". Walk over it and listen to it ring with each step.

The museum then tracks Jewish history, bringing you through the life of Jews from the early days to the present. Here it focuses less on persecution and mostly on the every day life of Jews throughout the centuries. All throughout, unusual displays and installation pieces actively involve the visitor.

It is a big museum to go through and prepare to spend a number of hours there. If you have bought a three-day museum pass entry is free, otherwise it costs 5€ for an adult. It's a visit worth making, but prepare to be physically and emotionally exhausted by it.