The grid of concrete blocks can be walked through from all sides, leaving it up to visitors to find their own way in and out of the complex. The waterproof stelae are made of high-quality concrete, each 0.95m wide and 2.38m long. They are hollow and tilted in slightly different ways. Looking far into the distance, the stelae are like waves. The field could be an ocean of cold terror.
"When you walk into the middle of the field, where stelae are higher than you, you cannot see buildings around anymore. The city of Berlin disappears and it's quiet like a death room. The distance between stelae allows only one person passing at one time. You walk by yourself. You are sort of in despair," said Ralf Oberndorfer, an interpreter working at the information center.
Before the two-year construction of the memorial, there had been a long discussion of an idea brought up in 1988 by Rosh, who called for a "high-profile memorial."
The planned memorial, which would cost 27.6 million euros (US$33.4 million), was mired in controversy for more than a decade.
For example, the company that developed anti-graffiti chemicals for the monument, Degussa, was under the parent company of Degesch, which manufactured the lethal gas Zyklon B -- the gas that the Nazis used in the "shower" rooms in places like Auschwitz.
"Since there's no piece of German society that doesn't have connections of the Nazis, we cannot build a monument of innocence," Oberndorfer said -- although in the end the chemicals were not applied.
"Every German family has some linkage with the Nazis. But you have to cope with yourself. It's like you prepare for a marathon. You have to do at least a little bit everyday," said Oberndorfer, whose grandfather worked for the Nazis.
Teach your children well
Jenny Onochie, a mother of two, said that she was shocked when listening to a survivor of the holocaust who spoke in one of her classes when she was a teenager. Now she always tries to come up with better ways to appropriately explain this part of Germany's history to her children.
"You cannot have a future without looking back [at] your history," Onochie said.
Germany has paid billions of dollars in compensation to Holocaust survivors since the end of World War II. It has also taken in displaced Jews from the former Soviet Union and other countries, and financially supported victims.
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