World World 2 Facts: Did You Know These 29 Interesting Details?
Anti-Graffiti Chemical Used on Holocaust Memorial Also Used in Gas Chambers
In 2003, a memorial was built in Berlin to honor the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” was designed by American architect Peter Eisenmen and features 2,711 large gray slabs of concrete of varying heights in rows covering over five acres of land. Intentionally designed to allow only one person through the rows of monuments at a time, the memorial forces its visitors into a personal and restrictive experience. It was important that the integrity of the memorial remain intact which is why its design included the addition of an anti-graffiti chemical to make cleaning vandalization relatively easy. The company that provided the chemical coating is Degussa, which also happens to be the parent company of Degesch, the supplier of Zyklon B hydrogen cyanide gas pellets used in the Jewish extermination camps during WWII. When construction of the memorial was in full swing, news of this sinister connection broke and there were heated debates on the subject and whether or not to find a new supplier. Degussa was eventually kept as the choice for the job, but the irony is still unparalleled.