Obj. ID: 51070
Memorials Monument to Polish Jewsish victims of the Holocaust in the Western (New) Jewish Cemetery in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1980s(?)
To the main object: Western (New) Jewish cemetery in Copenhagen, Denmark
Memorial Name
Memorial to the Polish Jews victims of the Holocaust
Who is Commemorated?
Polish Jewish victims of the Holocaust
Description:
A stele of grey granite is situated in circle of trees at the western side of the main passageway leading from the cemetery gates to the cemetery chapel.
The façade of the stele, facing the main passageway, features a shallow Star of David in the upper part and two hands rising from flames at the bottom. The flames continue on all sides of the stele.
A shortened verse from the poem “The song of the Murdered Jewish People” (דאָס ליד פונעם אױסגעהרגעטן ײדישן פאָלק) by the Polish-Jewish poet Itzhak Katzenelson (killed in 1944) appears in the center of the façade. Underneath appear the phrase “Never again” in Polish and Danish and the Hebrew abbreviation of the traditional phrase “May their souls be bound in the bundle of life.”
A dedication in Yiddish and Danish appears on the back of the stele. In the lower right corner there is a name of the sculptor, J. Salamon.
Inscriptions
On the façade:
Yiddish:
איך זוך די טויטע מיינע
אין יעדן בערגל אש
י. קאצענעלסאן
Translation: I search for my dead / in every hill of ash. I. Katzenelson
Polish:
Nigdy wiecej
Translation: Never again
Danish:
Aldrig mere
Translation: Never again
ת'נ'צ'ב'ה'
Translation: May their souls be bound in the bundle of life
On the back side:
Yiddish:
געווידמעט די פוילישע יידן
קרבנות פון שאה 1939-1945
די פוילישע יידן אין דענעמארק
Translation: Dedicated to Polish Jews / victims of the Holocaust, 1939–1945. The Polish Jews in Denmark.
Danish:
Skænket af de polske jøder
i Danmark til minde om
de polske holocaustofre
1939 – 1945
J. Salamon
Translation: Donated by the Polish Jews / in Denmark in memory of / the Polish Holocaust victims / 1939–1945. J. Salamon
Commissioned by
Polish Jews living in Denmark
sub-set tree:
J. Salamon, in the lower right corner on the back
The memorial to the Polish Jewish victims was probably erected in order to supplement the main Holocaust memorial in the cemetery constructed in 1946 in memory of 51 Danish Jews who perished in Theresienstadt (Terezin) (see here).