Renee van Bavel

LIFELINE

LIFELINE

Is it possible that in Memorial Sachsenhausen, a former Concentration camp, in a place where we face the horrors of the past, new life, something hopeful like a flower can take root, sown today on the soil of the past, but growing into the future?

LIFELINE is a 52-meter-long and 15-centimeter-wide “LIFELINE” made of earth in which wildflower seeds have been sown. It runs down the middle of an area enclosed in steel and filled with black stones, the outline of former prisoner barrack nummer 24 in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.   

With LIFELINE, I want to invite visitors to reflect:  Can new life arise in a place where so many people suffered, died and were killed? How do we want to commemorate the people who suffered and died in this inhumane situation? Do we only remember their deaths, or can we also remember the life that these people lived?

With wildflowers, as different, in shapes and colours as we humans, as a mirror of our society. With returning flowers, as a sign of strength and hope. 

Can there be room for hope in this place?