Memorials are places with a strong connection to a memorable event or a person worth remembering, which have been structurally or horticulturally designed into a monument or memorial.

In Thuringia, a large number of memorials commemorate the victims of tyranny. They are built at authentic sites of human rights violations during the various dictatorial regimes of the 20th century (Nazi rule, Soviet military tribunals, GDR injustice). Exhibitions in the individual facilities are intended to convey the concrete forms of human rights violations and to illustrate - as far as possible - the suffering of the victims.