Obj. ID: 44852
Modern Jewish Art Monument to the Victims of the Holocaust in Ghetto Nuovo Square in Venice, Italy
To the main object: Ghetto Nuovo in Venice, Italy
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
1 image(s)
sub-set tree:
The Nuevo Ghetto of Venice, the oldest ghetto in the world, was first designated as such for Jews on March 16th, 1516. From that day until 1796, when they were removed by Napoleon, gates and guards kept the Jews of Venice segregated from the rest of the population, though non-Jewish Venetians could go into the ghetto during the day (Sacerdoti 1989, 70-71). Wealthy Jews left the ghetto but poorer residents had no choice but to stay (ibid).
In 1931, the community had 1,814 members, and by the end of World War II, 1,050 Jews remained in Venice. During the war, the Jews of Venice were forced back into the ghetto, and the gates and guards returned. Most sources, place the number of Jews deported by the nazis from the ghetto during the Holocaust at 246. Notable among these victims was Adolfo Ottolenghi, Chief Rabbi of Venice at the time.
The monument, consisting of a series of bronze reliefs by the Lithuanian-American sculptor Arbit Blatas, was erected on April 25th, 1980 (the national holiday of liberation from the nazis). The reliefs were inspired by Blatas' drawings produced as the opening images for the 1978 TV series Holocaust.
Copies of this memorial are displayed:
- by the Shrine of the Unknown Jewish Martyrs in Paris, France (since 1981);
- outside the former headquarters of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) at Dag Hammerskjold Plaza in New York in 1982. Paques went into storage when the organization sold its building and were recently donated to the Hebrew Union College;
- in the Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania (since 2003).
"Arbit Blatas Bas-Reliefs" Jewish Community of Venice Website, http://jvenice.org/en/arbit-blatas-bas-reliefs (accessed March 23, 2023)
McBee, Richard, "Arbit Blatas: Centennial Tribute", https://richardmcbee.com/writings/arbit-blatas-centennial-tribute/ (accessed March 23, 2023)
Romeo, Luisella, "Signs of Remembrance: the Shoah in Venice" BestVeniceGuides.it, https://bestveniceguides.it/en/2019/01/18/signs-of-remembrance-the-shoah-in-venice/? (accessed March 19, 2023)
Sacerdoti, Annie, Guide to Jewish Italy (Brooklyn: Israelowitz Publishing, 1989)
Samuel Gruber "Samuel Gruber's Jewish Art & Monuments", http://samgrubersjewishartmonuments.blogspot.com/search?q=Blatas+ (accessed March 23, 2023)
"Un monumento alle vittime della Shoah realizzato da Arbit Blatas nel ghetto più antico del mondo" itlietuviai.it, https://www.itlietuviai.it/un-monumento-alle-vittime-della-shoah-realizzato-da-arbit-blatas-nel-ghetto-piu-antico-del-mondo/ (accessed March 23, 2023)