Obj. ID: 46181
Memorials Memorial Plaque at the Synagogue in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia, 1992/3
To the main object: Synagogue in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia
Name of Monument
No official name
What/Who is commemorated?
885 Jews deported from Liptovský Mikuláš
Description
A bronze wall plaque depicts a broken inscribed broken gravestone (matzevah). A stylized hand reaches up and seems to be dragging its fingers down through the text as if the bronze were clay, leaving four uneven track marks through the inscription, obscuring some texts. Below and to the right is a two-line admonition (Remember) in squared Hebrew letters, followed by in inscription in Slovak about the fate of the Jews of Liptovský Mikuláš.
Inscriptions
On the plaque, in Hebrew:
לזכר נשמות
קדושי עמנו
Translation: In memory of the souls of martyrs from among our people
On the plaque, in Slovak:
Z LIPTOVSKÉHO MIKULÁŠA
V ROKOOH 1943-1945 DEPORTOVALI
885 ŽIDOVSKYOR OBČANOV
DO KONCENTRAČNÝCH TÁBOROV
CELEJ EURÓPY,
NA VEČNÚ PAMIATKU UMUŠENÝM
1992
Translation: From Liptovsky Mikuláš 885 Jewish citizens were deported in the years 1943-1945 to concentration camps all of Europe. In eternal memory of the dead. 1992
Commissioned by
Museum of Jewish Culture, Bratislava (a branch of the Slovak National Museum)
sub-set tree: 
The relief on the front facade of the former synagogue is dedicated to Holocaust victims of Liptovský Mikuláš. The relief was sculpted by sculptor Michal Kern, an artist from Liptovský Mikuláš.
Michal Kern was among the central figures of an unofficial art scene in the 1970s and 1980s in Czechoslovakia. Kern was one of the initiators of the conservation of the synagogue in Liptovský Mikuláš in the early nineties. He wanted to make a synagogue a space for reflection on time and mankind but his project was not realised.
A copy of the relief he made for the synagogue is also located at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and other versions are affixed to synagogues around Slovakia, installed by the Museum of Jewish Culture. In addition to Liptovský Mikuláš, similar memorial plaques are installed at the former synagogues of Poprad, Huncovce, Topolčany, Bardejov, Kosice, and Nitra).
Laučík, Ivan, "Z tmy svetla – Michal Kern," Delet, January 15, 2004, http://www.delet.sk/spravy-a-politika/slovensko/z-tmy-svetla-michal-kern (accessed July 4, 2024)
"Synagogue," Liptovský Mikuláš website, https://www.mikulas.sk/en/visitor/museums-and-galleries/synagogue/ (accessed June 30, 2024)
“Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research in Slovakia,” International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) website., https://2015.holocaustremembrance.com/member-countries/holocaust-education-remembrance-and-research-slovakia (accessed June 30, 2024)
For more on Machal Kern, see https://artfond.sk/en/umelec/michal-kern-en/