Many visitors and Berliners have also interpreted the contrast between the grey flat stones and the blue sky as a recognition of the " dismal times " of the Holocaust . As one slopes downwards into the memorial entrance , the grey pillars begin to grow taller until they completely consume the visitor . Eventually the grey pillars become smaller again as visitors ascend towards the exit . Some have interpreted this as the rise and fall of the Third Reich or the Regime 's gradual momentum of power that allowed them to perpetrate such atrocities on the Jewish community . The space in between the concrete pillars offers a brief encounter with the sunlight . As visitors wander through the slabs the sun disappears and reappears . One is constantly tormented with the possibility of a warmer , brighter life . Some have interpreted this use of space as a symbolic remembrance of the volatile history of European Jews whose political and social rights constantly shifted . Many visitors have claimed walking through the memorial makes one feel trapped without any option other than to move forward . Some claim the downward slope that directs you away from the outside symbolically depicts the gradual escalation of the Third Reich 's persecution of the European Jewish community . First , they were forced into ghettos and removed from society and eventually they were removed from existence . The more a visitor descends into the memorial , he or she is without any visible contact of the outside world . He or she is completely ostracized and hidden from the world . It is common for groups of visitors to lose each other as they wander deeper into the memorial . This often reminds one of the separation and loss of family among the Jewish community during the Holocaust
persecution of the European Jewish community
The Holocaust
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe