The Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires is intended to keep alive the memory of the Shoah and to spread what happened during the genocide of the Jewish people to the Argentine society, collecting a large archive of documents and personal objects donated by those who suffered persecution and immigrated From Europe.
The efforts to create the museum began in the mid-1990s, when the Holocaust Memorial Foundation began collecting stories, testimonies, documents and personal objects from Holocaust survivors in Argentina. 1 After receiving the National Government the building of the Sub-Usina “Montevideo” of Italo-Argentina Electricity Company , in the neighborhood of Recoleta, the contest where the proposal was chosen winner developed Dujovne-Hirsch and Grinberg-Dwek-Sartorio-Iglesias , and remodeling began in August 1999. 2
The work progressed rapidly, in charge of the construction Fiwolco SA, and the new museum was inaugurated the 25 of September of 2000 , with an exhibition dedicated to Anne Frank , in March shortly after in Berlin opening the Jewish Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind .
The building of the Sub-Usina “Montevideo” of the Italo-Argentina Electricity Company was designed by the Italian architect Juan Chiogna , contracted by the CIAE to project all its dependencies using a very particular Florentine Neo-Renaissance style, bringing reminiscences of the architecture Of northern Italy, place of origin of the author and the company. It has four floors and a tower that adds one more level, on the facade towards Montevideo street.
Together with other sub-plants spread all over Buenos Aires and its environs, Chiogna designed the Super-Plant Pedro de Mendoza (now the Usina de las Artes ) in La Boca between 1912 and 1916, extending these very striking buildings throughout the A city that grew at high speed.
By the time the sub-plant was ceded to the Foundation, it was very deteriorated and out of operation, following the deactivation of the Pedro de Mendoza Plant in the late 1990s. The architects Dujovne-Hirsch and Grinberg-Dwek-Sartorio – Churches made the restoration of the exterior and interior facades, keeping them intact, and completely remodeled the interiors. The old building has a main circulation cobbled running through the field in the middle and leads to an inner courtyard that separates a building on the bottom of the field, the architects decided to connect with an iron frame glazed, as a passageway for viewing The yard and its trees and receive light but not access it.
The museum occupies the basement, the ground floor and a mezzanine, while the upper floors of the main building are occupied by the offices of the Foundation. The building fund, has a single level of high altitude and roof trusses and metal cover plate, fully exploited for the museum. As a particular corner, the route includes a place of meditation on a patio of air and light in which a mirror of water was added. In total are 2,500 m2 of covered area.
- Back to top↑ Buenos Aires will have its Holocaust Museum clarin.com, September 30, 1996
- Back to top↑ For the future memory lanacion.com, August 4, 1999
- Back to top↑ Testimonies of the Jewish Holocaust lanacion.com, September 17, 2000