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Memorial Name

In the Shadow of their Absence (San Juan Holocaust Memorial)

Who/What is Commemorated?

Victims of the Holocaust and 17 Puerto Rican tourists murdered at Lod Airport massacre in Israel in 1972.

Description:

The monument is located across from the Capitol building and within walking distance of cruise ship piers. A large, curved metal sculpture is set in a raised semi-circular plaza, paved with square tiles.  A semi-circular wall raised from the street level, and the upper inner part of this wall is a plaza level, and is low and beveled, with a series of text panels that provide an extensive history of the Holocaust mounted on the top of this wall.

Set in the center of the plaza is a large memorial sculpture made of a tall curved panel of weathering steel that recalls the tattered and worn curved parchment of a Torah scroll. One side of the scroll appears rolled up and has been likened to the chimney of a crematorium. At the top of the metal scroll is inscribed in flame-shaped Hebrew letters the words “Zachor - Remember.”

Below this in large letters is a quote in Spanish and English.

Cut out from the lower part of the middle scroll are four shapes representing a family -  a man, a woman, a boy, and a girl. Each cut-out is given a permanent 'shadow' of black granite.

A walkway entitled Path of the Righteous honors those who risked their lives to help others during the Second World War. Signs provide biographical information on many notable “righteous gentiles,” who helped save Jews.

Inscriptions:

Que seis millones de velas illumines la oscuridad de estas vidas truncadas

Let 6 million candles glow against the darkness of these unfinished lives 

Rise of the Nazi Party

Kristallnacht 

Ghettos

The Final Solution

Deportation

Concentration and Labor Camps

Death Camps

The Resistance

Liberation

1.5 Million Children

Millions of Other victims

Six Million Murdered 

The Righteous Among the Nations 

Lod Massacre

Excerpts from panels

“is about the impact of the Holocaust on current and future generations. Its purpose is to ensure that civilized society carries the knowledge and memory of the suffering and pain that hatred causes when humans are targeted for their color, race, or creed. This knowledge is a weapon in the struggle of good against evil, and acts as a moral compass to guide future generations to prevent unspeakable evil from happening again. It is intended to be relevant, meaningful, and universal.”

“The Lod Airport massacre revealed the power of terrorist ideology to incite murder. A new form of violence, targeting civilian non-combatants with the intent to create a mood of fear and intimidation, became a means for terrorists to popularize extremist political and social agendas.”

“On May 30, 1972, three terrorists supported by the General Command of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine, perpetuated a massacre at the Lod airport in Israel, firing indiscriminately against passengers waiting for their luggage. Among them was a group of Puerto Ricans eagerly awaiting pilgrimage in the Holy Land. This cowardly terrorist attack left seventy-eight wounded people, twenty six killed; seventeen were Puerto Ricans.”

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