Totenburg - the uncomfortable exhibit.

In the case of the legacy of so called difficult herritage, we can observe two ways of coping with the issue. Symbolic aggression at the same time erases it from the human memory. The interpretative tendency assumes the protection of the object as evidence of a difficult past, followed by means to allow for its proper interpretation.

The visit provides a various experience of each layer of the space. The exploration starts in the city, where the urban landscape’s proportion is particular. The next layer is the forest. Walking through a dense locality of trees, the distinct transitions between spatial proportions are discernible. Trekking everhigher we reach a surface of trees aligned in a ring shape with a massive and plain wall of the building thereafter. Here, the entrance zone is found. The reception and orientation area leads to exhibition galleries both temporary and permanent. The main exhibition of the Museum starts on the first level. We can follow both left and right direction. There's no sense of disorientation. It will soon become evident that this concentric interior is totally integrated with the purpose of the building – to tell the story of what's hidden inside. In an abrupt fashion, we confront an unexpected entity, the Nazi mausoleum. It directly symbolizes the history of the discussed period of time. The very important role in the building experience plays the nature. Not only it presents the unusual character of the surroundings, but also heightens the monumental impression both contributing to the architecture and contrasting with it with its soft lines. From the rooftop terrace we also receive placed around informations in which direction and how we should go to explore the history more further. The past is the part of our identity, even the difficult one. Along our journey we are constantly exposed to a series of architectural impressions in which the sense of the past is heightened, both phisically and poetically, by the experience of the present. In the end we realise that architecture is a powerful instrument of symbolism and an extremely effective shaper of the environment and emotional responses.