Obj. ID: 46173
  Memorials Monument to Six Million Martyrs in Philadelphia, PA, USA, 1964
To the main object: Holocaust Memorial Plaza in Philidelphia, PA, USA
Name of Monument
Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs
What/Who is commemorated?
Six Million Jewish Martyrs
Description
Consists of a tall bronze sculpture set on a large almost square red granite base. The bronze sculpture appears from a distance to be entirely abstract, but closer examination reveals a mix of figurative and representation forms mixes with jagged and angled shapes, that are themselves representations of folds of clothing and rising flames. The work rises up with great force, as if exploding out form the base. It is meant to be seen entire in the round, and the view changes as one circles the sculpture.
One sees amidst the flames (of a burning bush?), a strong mother figure who reclines backward in agony, and form her rootedness the rest of the work spirals upward. Above the woman a wailing child thrusts its arms out. A man wearing a prayer shawl and tefillin raises his hands upward in prayer, his hands making the sign of the priestly blessing in prayer. Another pair of hands grasp the Torah scrolls. Near the top, fists hold daggers in resistance. At the very top flames crown the monument in the form of a menorah.
Natasha Goldman describes the sculpture in her detailed study (N. Goldman, p. 62):
“The female figure at the base of the Philadelphia monument leans back and physically supports the entire sculpture. While markings on the original clay are visible, Rapoport does not provide many naturalistic details. The highly figurative man (often called the rabbi in newspaper articles) is one of the few overtly Jewish figures in the sculpture. The figure’s arms are raised, and his fingers are parted in the recognizable ancient gesture of Jewish priestly benediction. On his forehead he wears the tefillin, or phylacteries, used daily in prayer by observant Jews. In certain light, however, when stark contrast between protruding and receding elements are visually emphasized, this overtly Jewish element might go unnoticed. Abstract and roughly worked figures of a mother and child emerged from the abstract flames above the woman's legs, and a nearby child reaches for safety. One bronze hand, so figurative that protruding veins are visible, holds the Torah aloft. The Torah, however, is sculpted in such a way that the two scrolls might be mistaken for abstract forms. Two other highly figurative hands, unattached bodies and their veins bulging hold daggers: a tribute to Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. While the flames surrounding the figures take on sharp, abstract, geometric angles the flames at the top of the sculpture are rounded, fanning out as a Hanukkah menorah does, thus metaphorically blending the “flames of destruction” (i.e. the Holocaust) with the “flames of resistance” (the flames of the candles of the, or Hanukkah menorah, traditionally associated with heroic Jewish resistance to tyranny related in the book of Maccabees and celebrated during Hanukkah, the Jewish feast of lights).
Inscriptions
Inscription on base, east side, in English:
THE HOLOCAUST
1933-1945
NOW AND FOREVER ENSHRINED IN MEMORY ARE THE SIX MILLION
JEWISH MARTYRS WHO PERISHED IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS
GHETTOS AND GAS CHAMBERS.
IN THEIR DEEPEST AGONY THEY CLUNG TO THE IMAGE OF HUMANITY,
AND THEIR ACTS OF RESISTANCE IN THE FORESTS AND GHETTOS
REDEEMED THE HONOR OF MAN.
THEIR SUFFERING AND HEROISM ARE FOREVER BRANDED UPON
OUR CONSCIENCE AND SHALL BE REMEMBERED
FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION.
Inscription on base, north side, in English:
Presented to
the City of Philadelphia
by
the Association of Jewish
New Americans
in coordination with
the Federation of Jewish Agencies
of Greater Philadelphia
April 26, 1964
Inscription on base, west side:
REMEMBER זכור
Drancy |
Auschwitz |
Ponary |
Inscription on base, south side, in Hebrew:
לזכר אחינו מקדשי השם שנרצחו בידי הנאצים
1933-1945
Translation: In memory of our brother, martyrs for the Name, who were murdered by Nazis // 1933-1945
In Yiddish:
ין אנדענק פון די זעקס מיליאן יידישע קדושים
אומגעבראכט דורך די נאצ יס
Translation: In memory of the six million Jewish martyrs, who were murdered by the Nazis
Historical signage installed in 2018:
Nathan Rapoport (1911-1987) began his career in Poland, where he won a
scholarship to study art in France and Italy. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939,
Rapoport, who was Jewish, fled to Russian-controlled territory, where he worked
briefly in a labor camp and later as an artist. He immigrated to the United States in
1950. The Holocaust was a frequent subject of Rapoport's works, which stand today
in Poland Israel New York City, and elsewhere.
Rapoport's Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs (bronze, 1964) was the first
public Holocaust memorial in the United States. It was commissioned by a group of
civic leaders and Holocaust survivors, including Dalck Feith, Harold Greenspan,
Abram Schnaper, Joseph Smukler, and the Association of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors of Philadelphia. Together with the association of Jewish New Americans
and the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia, they presented
Rapoport's monument to the City of Philadelphia on April 26th, 1964. In 2018, this
complex symbol of suffering, resilience, death, and hope was enhanced by the
present memorial plaza, which was built by the Philadelphia Holocaust
Remembrance Foundation.
Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs
Nathan Rapoport
Commissioned by
Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Philadelphia with the Association of Jewish New Americans and the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia.
sub-set tree: 
| Horwitz-Wasserman Memorial Plaza, 16th, Arch, and the Parkway
T | Torah scroll
T | Tefillin
F | Fire
F | Flame
M | Menorah
H | Human Figure
H | Human Figure | Hand
F | Family | Mother | Mother and child
J | Jewish man
J | Jewish woman
J | Jewish children
T | Tallit (Prayer Shawl; See also: Prayer)
W | Weapons | Sword
|
Granite
Height 18′, width 6', depth 6' (base height 4’4 1/2″, width 7'6", depth 7')
On upper face of east side of base of bronze monument (see photo).
For a detailed history of the commissioning and design of the monument see: Natasha Goldman, Natasha. Memory Passages: Holocaust Memorials in the United States and Germany (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2020), pp. 53-80.
The monument was commissioned by the Association of Jewish New Americans, a group of several hundred families, many of whom had fled Europe after Hitler came to power, or who were survivors of the Holocaust. The group donated the monument to the city in 1964, in conjunction with the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia.
The monument was dedicated at a solemn ceremony on April 26, 1964.
The monument was a stand-alone piece until 2018 when the surrounding Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza was created.
Bach, Penny Balkin, Public Art in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992).
Cloobeck, Jaden, “Philadelphia’s Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs,” Philamonuments., https://web.sas.upenn.edu/philamonuments/built-monuments/philadelphias-monument-to-six-million-jewish-martyrs/ (accessed June 2, 2024)
Goldman, Natasha, “A Forgotten Memorial and Philadelphia’s Survivors: Nathan Rapoport’s Monument to the Six million Jewish Martyrs (1964),” in Memory Passages: Holocaust Memorials in the United States and Germany, ed. Natasha Goldman, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2020), 53-80.
Goldman, Natasha. "‘Never bow your head, be helpful, and fight for justice and righteousness:‘ Nathan Rapoport and Philadelphia’s Holocaust Memorial (1964),” Journal of Jewish Identities 9,2 (July 2016): 159-192., https://muse.jhu.edu/article/625018 (accessed December 23, 2021)
Gruber, Samuel D. “Happy Birthday Sculptor Nathan (Natan) Rapoport (1911-1987), Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art and Monuments, Nov. 8, 2015., https://samgrubersjewishartmonuments.blogspot.com/2015/11/happy-birthday-sculptor-natan-rapoport.html (accessed December 16, 2021)
"Monument to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs," Philadelphia Public Art, https://www.philart.net/artist/Nathan_Rapoport/189.html (accessed June 3, 2024)
Romero, Melisssa, “New Philly Holocaust Memorial renderings, details unveiled,” Curbed Philadelphia, May 10, 2017., https://philly.curbed.com/2017/5/10/15611462/philly-holocaust-memorial-plaza-renderings-groundbreaking (accessed June 2, 2024)
Yaffe, Richard. Nathan Rapoport Sculptures and Monuments (New York: Shengold, 1980).
Young, James. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning. (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1993).