Img. ID: 599732
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Memorial name

Monumento Vittime della Shoah

Who is Commemorated?

Venitian Jews who were deported to nazi concentration camps on December 5th, 1943 and August 17th, 1944

Description

This monument, consisting of seven bronze plaques, is affixed to the brick wall of the Ghetto Nuovo (New Ghetto) Square in Venice. The plaques depict the Holocaust in seven "snapshots" depicted in bas-relief and are arranged in a triangular shape on the wall. The Plaques are described below starting with the highest one on the wall, and proceeding clockwise:

1. The Punishment

Two vaguely depicted figures are tied to posts with their arms behind them, and their heads down.

2. The Revolt of the Warsaw Ghetto

A chaotic scene is depicted with Jewish figures fighting nazi soldiers that meld into the rough background of this relief.

3. The Quarry

Three figures labor, their backs bent, to carry a cart filled with blocks. A nazi soldier behind them directs them, with an arm raised as if carrying a whip.

4. Crystal Night

A mob carries four rectangular objects out of a building, possibly Torah Scrolls and the rioters take up the majority of the foreground of this relief. A large building covers half the background, and a broken window is clearly depicted.

5. Execution in the Ghetto

A solitary figure stands before a brick wall, and three soldiers are lined up, rifles raised, with their backs toward us. Two additional figures stand off to the side watching the execution, one wears a hat that looks like an officer's cap and is forcing the other - a surrogate for us - to watch.

6. Deportation

Masses of undefined figures move from the left of this relief to the right, directed by a nazi soldier in the foreground. One of the figures, a bearded Jewish man, is depicted more clearly than his fellow victims, and faces the viewer, as the victims march into the unknown.

7. The Final Solution

Nazi soldiers huddle in a corner of the relief, as a group of figures walks toward them and the pile of twisted corpses that are next to them.

Nearby are two additional plaques, also made of bronze, beneath the Hebrew word קדיש. The higher of these plaques contain a quote from Andre Torc, a former member of the French combat forces, in French, Italian, and English. The lower is a dedicatory quote from the then-Mayor of Venice, Mario Rigo. Between the two plaques is a bronze Magen David

Inscriptions

Above the Plaques (Hebrew)

קדיש

Translation: Kaddish

Upper Plaque, Main Text

French

Hommes, femmes, enfants, tr, troupeau pour crematores

cheminant mers l'horreur sous le fout lu bourreau

votre triste Holocauste esi gravé dans l'histoire

et rien ne chassera vos moris de nos mémoires

car nos mémoires sont votre unique l'ombeau.

Italian

Uomini donne e fanciulli gregge per il crematorio

avanzanti verso l'orrore sotto la frusia del boia

il nostro triste Olocausto e scolpito nella storia

e nulla cancellera i vostri morti dalla nostra memoria

perche le nostre memorie sono la vostra unica tomba.

English

Men, women, children, masses for the gas chambers

advancing towards horror beneath the whip of the exocutioner,

your sad Holocaust is engraved in history

and nothing shall purge your deaths from our memories,

for our memories are your only grave.

Upper Plaque, Bottom Line (French)

Andre Tronc ancien des forces Francaises combattantes

Translation: Andre Tronc, former French combat forces

Lower Plaque, Main Text

French

La ville de Venice se souvient des Juifs Venitiens ui le 5 Decembre 1943 et

le 17 Aout 1944 furent deportes dans les camps d'exterination nazis.

English

The city of Venice remembers the Venitian Jews who were deported to

the nazi concentration camps on December 5th 1943 and August 17th 1944

Italian

La cittá di Venezia ricorda gliebri i Venezian Ce il 5 Dicembre 1943 ed

il 17 Agosto 1944 furono deportanti nei campi di sterminio nazisti

Lower Plaque, Bottom Line (Italian)

Il sindaco Mario Rigo

Translation: Mayor Mario Rigo

Commissioned by

The City of Venice