Img. ID: 425042
Memorials  

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Memorial Name

Holocaust Memorial Wall

Who is Commemorated?

Victims of the Holocaust

Description

The Holocaust Memorial Wall is located above the inside entrance of the synagogue sanctuary. The massive, embossed copper relief is mounted above the three entrance doors, and it spans most of the width of the wall. It is a composite of more than 30 rectangular copper panels which are combined to form three main sections of the sculpture. The main central section consists of a lower part that is covered by a grid of squares suggesting prison bars. Scenes of suffering are shown behind (or under) the grid and on top of it are the names of camps and killing sites and the dates 1940 to 1945.

Above this is a large composition. That includes different types of figures around flames. Some heads and figures are entirely engulfed by flames. Other detailed figures, including the Warsaw Ghetto boy with his hands up, known from the famous photo in the Stroop Report, are shown standing in an area within a barbed wire enclosure while flames seem to come from below. Behind these figures is a crowd of many more undifferentiated figures, all with their arms raised. Above these, six large birds are shown flying across the top of the composition.

Framing the main composition are panels showing two applied fluted pilasters on each side and an inscription above each of them. At the bottom of the relief, extending further outward away from the doors, are two panels. On the left is inscribed in large letters, “Remember,” and on the right is inscribed in Hebrew, זכור.

Inscriptions

Within the composition

Dates

1941     1942     1943     1944     1945

Killing Sites

Belzek     Warsaw     Neugasse     Natzweiler     Auschwitz     Landsberg

Birkenau     Gross Rosen     Floseenberg     Theresienstadt     Chemo

Kulmhof     Dora     Lublin     Rabensbruck     Stuffhof     Majdanek

Above the fluted pilasters (English and Hebrew)

"We the living
who will never forget"
לא ישכח

 Translation: [We] will not forget

"They,
who will never be forgotten"
לא ישכחן לעד

Translation: [They] will never be forgotten

On the side panels (English and Hebrew)

Remember
זכור

On the plaques directly above the doors

Left

Holocaust Memorial Wall 

Right

Endowed by Phylis and Norman Meier 

Commissioned By

Phylis and Norman Meier