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Holocaust Museum

The first exhibit about the Holocaust displayed in Cuba opened December 18 at the Centro Sephardi in Havana. The exhibit, “We Remember – The Holocaust and the Creation of a Living Community,” shines a light on the Cuban Jewish experience of the Holocaust and raises awareness that a small Jewish community makes Cuba its home.

“The opening of this exhibit marks a very important moment for the Cuban Jewish community,” said Mayra Levy, president of the Sephardic Center. “We welcome this exhibit which focuses on the origins of the Cuban Jewish community and the impact of the Holocaust. We also welcome our fellow Cubans and visitors to our island learning more about our community today.”

Oni Monument

On the 2nd of September, the monument dedicated to Sergei Metreveli and the victims of the Holocaust was opened; the ceremony was organized by the “Israeli House” and City Hall of Oni municipality. The event was held within The European Days of Jewis Culture and was supported by The European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage (AEPJ).
In 1942, once the Nazis invaded Kislovodsk, which is a city located in the north Caucasus, Sergei Metrvel, who at that time, worked in a wine factory in the said city, helped some Jews escape the place and sheltered them in Racha, Utsera. The Jews who could not leave Kisovodsk were shot by Nazis. In 2006 World Holocaust Center in Jerusalem – Yad Vashem, gave Sergei Metrevel the nobel status of “Righteous Among the Nations”, which made his name immortal. In 2015, with the support from the Knesset, the “Israeli House” filmed a movie about Sergei Metreveli and the survivor Emil Zigel. The premier, organized by the “Israeli House”, of the film was held at a Hasbara event.

A Memorial Plaque to Rudolph Valsonok

In 1926 Rudolf Valsonok (1889-1946) was driven to Memel (Klaipėda) by journalism and politics – two spheres he remained loyal to for the rest of his life. Here in Memel Valsonok spent his most creative years, worked as an editor, not only wrote a lot on the economic and political issues in a local newspaper but also published several books. At the same time, he actively represented the interests of the Nafthal family. After surviving Kaunas Ghetto and the Dachau concentration camp, in the last years of his life, Valsonok became the editor of the first port-Holocaust Jewish newspaper, Ladsberger Lager Tsaytung in Landsberg. He resided in several places in Memel.

Julius L. Wiener Tombstone

Memorial to Julius Liudvikas Vyneris (Wiener, 1795-1862) was one of the most impressive in all the city cemeteries. Openwork monument of white marble reminds of an ancient Greek temple, whereas gravestone marble slab with carved text – stylobate. On the top of it, six Doric order columns with flutes stood. On the columns – entablature with a gable roof and triangular pediments, carved from a large monolithic block. Monument was surrounded by an ornate metal fence. During the destruction of the cemetery, monument was moved to the Jewish community territory; after having restored the Independence it was returned to its place.

Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial

The Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial also known as the Nameless Library stands in Judenplatz in the first district of Vienna. It is the central memorial for the Austrian victims of the Holocaust and was designed by the British artist Rachel Whiteread.

The memorial is a steel and concrete construction with a base measuring 10 x 7 meters and a height of 3.8 meters. The outside surfaces of the volume are cast library shelves turned inside out. The spines of the books are facing inwards and are not visible, therefore the titles of the volumes are unknown and the content of the books remains unrevealed. The shelves of the memorial appear to hold endless copies of the same edition, which stand for the vast number of the victims, as well as the concept of Jews as “People of the Book.” The double doors are cast with the panels inside out, and have no doorknobs or handles. They suggest the possibility of coming and going, but do not open.

The memorial represents, in the style of Whiteread’s “empty spaces”, a library whose books are shown on the outside but are unreadable. The memorial can be understood as an appreciation of Judaism as a religion of the “book”; however, it also speaks of a cultural space of memory and loss created by the genocide of the European Jews. Through the emphasis of void and negative casting rather than positive form and material, it acts as a “counter monument” in this way opposite to the production through history of grandiose and triumphal monumental objects.

As a work of art, the memorial was not intended to be beautiful and as such it contrasts with much of the Baroque art and architecture of Vienna. A member of the design jury had noticed a resemblance to a bunker and the military fortifications of the Atlantic wall were later confirmed by the artist as a source of inspiration for the project. There is an aspect of discomfort in the monument that was meant to provoke thought in the viewer through the memorial’s severe presence. It was intended to evoke the tragedy and brutality of the Holocaust and in the words of Simon Wiesenthal at the unveiling, “This monument shouldn’t be beautiful, It must hurt.”

Image attribution:
Diana Ringo, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT , via Wikimedia Commons

Mauthausen Memorial

The Mauthausen Memorial today is an international site of remembrance and political-historical education. Here, the memory of the victims is being preserved, the history of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp and its sub-camps is being researched and documented, and through exhibitions and educational programmes its visitors are empowered to deal with and discuss the history of concentration camps.

From 1938 to 1945, the Mauthausen Concentration Camp was pivot to a system of more than 40 sub-camps, and the central site of political, social and racial persecution by the NS regime on the Austrian territory. Of a total of 190,000 persons held prisoners here, at least 90,000 were eventually killed.

The Mauthausen Memorial aims at raising awareness for any resurgence of National Socialist activities, anti-Semitism, racism, discrimination of minorities and antidemocratic tendencies. Furthermore, it is supposed to contribute to preserving public knowledge and memory of National Socialist mass crimes committed at the former Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps, and at all its sub-camps. The Mauthausen Memorial regards itself as a place of remembrance and education, with human rights education through live teaching of history being among its central tasks. It promotes the teaching of history, communicates its significance for present and future times and aims at pointing out comparable present day developments, tendencies and processes.

The Jewish Town Hall

Like many other structures in Prague’s Jewish Quarter, the Jewish Town Hall (Židovská Radnice in Czech) was funded by Mordechai Maisel, the community leader, philanthropist and one of its richest citizens during the 16th century. The Hall was built by Panacius Roder in 1586, with a distinct Renaissance style. It was originally used as the main meeting point for the local Jewish community until it was destroyed by a fire in 1755. The building was then reconstructed by Josef Schlesinger, in a Late Baroque style. This historical landmark boasts two clocks on its façade, a feature that symbolizes the former Prague Ghetto. The clock which is higher up on the tower uses Roman numerals. Notably, the second clock uses Hebrew numerals and hands that move counterclockwise. Although the Town Hall is not open to the public, it is still worth seeking out when touring the Jewish Quarter.

Image attribution:
Jim, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons;
jerzy Strzelecki, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons;
Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons;
hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons;
Yair Haklai, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Memorial de la Shoah

Mémorial de la Shoah is the Holocaust museum in Paris, France. The memorial is in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, in the Marais district, which had a large Jewish population at the beginning of World War II. The memorial was opened, by President Jacques Chirac, on 27 January 2005. This day was chosen to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp. The memorial underwent a major renovation in 2005, creating exhibition spaces, a multimedia center, and a reading room.

Wall of Names
Several walls that make a passageway to the building list the names of the approximately 76,000 French Jews who were deported and murdered by the Nazis. They are listed alphabetically by year of deportation.

The Crypt
The crypt predates the Mémorial de la Shoah; in 1957, the ashes of victims from the different death camps and the Warsaw Ghetto were buried in dirt from Israel. A door from the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp in France faces the tomb.

The “Jewish Files”
The Jewish files are located in a small room near the crypt. They were created by the Vichy government to identify Jewish citizens, and were later used by the Nazis to locate Jews for deportation.

Exhibit Rooms
The memorial’s permanent exhibit documents the history of French Jews during the Holocaust. The materials on exhibit include photographs, text, and video and audio recordings.

The memorial also includes an auditorium, bookstore, multimedia learning center, documentation center, and the Room of Names (research room).

The Wall of the Righteous
Since 1963, the Museum Memorial of Yad Vashem (Jerusalem) has awarded the title “Righteous Among the Nations” to non-Jewish people who helped save Jews during the war. As of 2014, this wall lists 3,300 people, either French or acting in France, who have been awarded this title. The wall runs alongside of the memorial.

Image attribution:
BrnGrby, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Shoes on the Danube Bank

Sculptors Gyula Pauer and Can Togay have created a moving memorial to these Holocaust atrocities that sits in front of the magnificent Parliament building on the edge of the river. What visitors will see are 60 pairs of rusted period shoes cast out of iron. Different sizes and styles reflect how nobody was spared from the brutality of the Arrow Cross militia (the shoes depict children, women, businessmen, sportsmen etc.).

The memorial was designed to honour the Jews who were massacred by Fascist Hungarian militia belonging to the Arrow Cross Party in Budapest during the Second World War. They were ordered to take off their shoes (shoes were valuable and could be stolen and resold by the militia after the massacre), and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. The memorial represents their shoes left behind on the bank. Behind the sculpture lies a 40 meter long, 70 cm high stone bench where at three points are cast iron signs, with the following text in Hungarian, English, and Hebrew: “To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944–45. Erected 16 April 2005.”

Image attribution:
Dennis JARVIS, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Marek Mróz, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas)is located on Cora-Berliner-Straße. Designed by Peter Eisenman, it features 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid-like formation. Each slab is several meters long and 3 feet wide. Adjacent to the memorial is an information center, which contains a timeline of the Final Solution, as well as the names of millions of victims of the holocaust. There’s also a visitors center, which displays many important moments and memories from the Holocaust. The memorial was opened in May 2005.

The debates over whether to have such a memorial and what form it should take extend back to the late 1980s, when a small group of private German citizens, led by television journalist Lea Rosh and historian Eberhard Jäckel, first began pressing for Germany to honor the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Rosh soon emerged as the driving force behind the memorial. In 1989, she founded a group to support its construction and to collect donations. With growing support, the Bundestag (German federal parliament) passed a resolution in favour of the project. On 25 June 1999, the Bundestag decided to build the memorial designed by Peter Eisenman. A federal foundation (Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) was consequently founded to run it.

Three years after the official opening of the memorial, half of the blocks made from compacting concrete started to crack. While some interpret this defect as an intentional symbolization of the immortality and durability of the Jewish community, the memorials’ foundation deny this. Some analyze the lack of individual names on the monument as an illustration of the unimaginable number of murdered Jews in the Holocaust. In this way, the memorial illustrates that the number of Jewish individuals murdered in the Holocaust was so colossal that is impossible to physically visualize

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