In Abuchenwald, Jacobs controlled by luck and for the help of a clandestine resistance working to save the children.He spent his days at the shoe store, which allowed him to evade the daily call, where the guards would probably have killed him.because of his youth. He later hid in the tuberculosis ward of the field hospital, where his father worked as a nurse.
“I have fleeting memories, ” said Jacobs.” I have memories that are not chronological, especially in recent weeks because it was a very traumatic and harmful moment because they were looking to liquidate the camp.”
Miraculously, Jacobs’ rapid circle of relatives survived the war, his grandmother died shortly after the liberation of the camps.The family circle moved to Switzerland, where they lived for 3 years.In 1948, they moved to the United States, to Washington Heights, New York.
Jacobs would be an eminent New York architect, founding his own business and partnering with his wife’s in-house designer, Andi Pepper.
His career eventually took him back to Buchenwald.I was in charge of creating a monument for the “small camp”, a quarantine domain where the new prisoners, adding Jacobs, remained in brutal condition.
Jacobs agreed, but did not settle for reimbursement because he did not need to be paid through the old camp, and “these are things that are not done in life.”The monument opened in 2002, on the 57th anniversary of the liberation of the camp.
Tirana’s memorial is much less emotionally exhausting, he said.
“Albania, of course, further because I am not there.I didn’t know much about Albania before. In fact, I didn’t know the story,” Jacobs said.”Buchenwald is absolutely different, so touching at first, it’s hard.”
When designing memorials, Jacobs’ priority is to make sure visitors leave with a greater understanding of the Holocaust.Like the Tirana Memorial, the Buchenwald Memorial is undeniable and has plaques with data on the field and the places from which the detainees were expelled.
“Holocaust memorials have a tendency to be one of two extremes,” he said.”They have a tendency to be the heroic Soviet-style monument, or heroic resistance to fascism, or so completely summary that the viewer wants an explanation of what he is in, such as [Peter]Eisenman’s memorial in Berlin.
“And I felt that none of those instructions were appropriate. The most significant thing about a Holocaust memorial, especially if we do it for generations, is to tell other people precisely what happened here.”
The most significant thing about a Holocaust memorial is telling other people exactly what happened here
In recent years, Jacobs has been in the media not only for his architectural work, but also for his harsh denunciation of U.S. President Donald Trump.In a 2018 interview with Newsweek that garnered extensive media coverage, he made comparisons between those just below Trump and before-war Germany.
“I think this is probably the ultimate life choice, in fact in my life,” he said, adding that the result “will be the long term of this country.”
“Four more years of Trump and this country will be unrecognizable,” said Jacobs, who supported Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential crusade and would vote for Joe Biden in November.
Jacobs, who divides his time between New York’s Upper West Side and Lyme City in Connecticut, still works as an architect, the coronavirus pandemic prevented him from attending Tirana’s inauguration.
He said that being able to design Holocaust memorials was cathartic to him, but that doesn’t mean he forgave Germany for its past.In fact, Jacobs reminds a German official who said at the opening of the Buchenwald monument that his presence was a “symbol of forgiveness.””and that a journalist had asked him what was going on.
“It’s not about forgiving,” he recalls, responding.” For me, it’s a matter of closure.It all has to end, and that’s why it’s so vital for me to do it on a non-public level.”