Jüdisches Museum

For an eye-opening, emotional and interactive exploration of 2000 years of Jewish history in Germany visit the impressive Jüdisches Museum. You'll learn about Jewish cultural contributions, holiday traditions, the difficult road to Emancipation, and outstanding individuals, such as jeans inventor Levi Strauss and philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Only one section deals directly with the Holocaust, but its horrors are poignantly reflected by Daniel Libeskind's powerful museum building. Essentially a 3-D metaphor for Jewish suffering, its silvery zinc walls are sharply angled, and instead of windows there are only small gashes piercing the building's gleaming skin. The visual allegory continues on the inside where a steep staircase descends to three intersecting walkways - called 'axes' - representing the fates of Jews during the Nazi years: death, exile and continuity. Only the last leads to the actual exhibit.