Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial

Holocaust Memorial on Miami Beach: The Sculpture of Love and Anguish

The Holocaust Memorial on Miami Beach is a memorial to the destruction of millions of Jews to the Nazi era , the Holocaust is to remember in Europe. It was built at the emblematic 1933–1945 Meridian Avenue address in Miami Beach , Florida .

description

Colonnade arbor with pictures and texts on a granite wall

Sculpture group in front of a granite wall with the names of the murdered

The memorial consists of several elements. The focal point is the 13-meter-high bronze sculpture The Sculpture of Love and Anguish , which stands on a round plateau in a water basin. It depicts an arm with a realistically designed open hand. The forearm is modeled from around 100 people, some of whom stand together in family groups. The forearm is also marked with an inmate number .

In the entrance area of the memorial is a statue of a grieving mother with two children who are hugging her. It is joined by a semicircular colonnade arbor with columns made of pink Jerusalem stone ( Meleke ) and a black granite wall with documentary images and informative texts about the development of the Holocaust, which are supplemented with original quotes from the time of National Socialism in Germany. The pictures show u. a. Recordings from the concentration camps and the liberation by the Allied forces. The corridor is covered by a wooden scaffolding that is planted with white bougainvillea . The introduction and captions are by historian Helen N. Fagin. At the end of the wall there are three chiseled plaques that list the events from Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 to his death in 1945.

The colonnade arbor leads into a room (Dome of Contemplation) , which leads into a narrowing tunnel (The Lonely Path) made of pink Jerusalem stone. The names of the Nazi concentration camps are written on the tunnel walls . The tunnel opens to the water basin with the bronze sculpture and another black granite wall on which the names of Holocaust victims are written.

history

The idea for the Holocaust Memorial came up in 1984 in a committee of Holocaust survivors. In 1985 these merged to form the non-profit organization "Holocaust Memorial Committee". Kenneth Treister designed the design concept. The “City of Miami Beach Commission at Meridian Avenue and Dade Boulevard” selected the location for the memorial.

The inauguration took place on February 4, 1990. The guest speaker was Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel , who can be seen in one of the pictures as a child in the concentration camp.