Obj. ID: 54345
Memorials Memorial to Zamość victims of the Holocaust in the Baron de Hirsh Jewish Cemetery, in Montreal, Canada, 1967
To the main object: Baron de Hirsch Jewish Cemetery in Montreal, Canada
Name of Monument
No official name
What/Who is commemorated?
The Holocaust Jewish victims of Zamość (Poland).
Description
The monument is located off the main road within the cemetery. A small plot of land for the memorial is demarcated by six low rectangular gray granite posts decorated with menorahs and Magen Davids, and linked by chains.
The monument itself consists of a 2-level base made of horizontally laid rectangular gray granite blocks, with the small one on top. Upon this are set three connected inscribed gray granite trapezoidal slabs. The central one is tall and narrow, and tapers towards the top like an obelisk, and at the bottom is a rectangular black granite inscribed stone, indicating the ashes from the camps are buried here. A bronze menorah is affixed near the top as a relief. The side panels are more rectangular – but with angled sides to neatly fit the tapered central element. Their front sides are heavily inscribed in Hebrew, Yiddish, and English. The backs of all these pieces are left smooth, without inscription or decoration.
Inscriptions
On the middle slab of the monument, in Hebrew:
לזכר עולם
ה'שמ''ח 1588 - 1942 ה'תש''ב
זמושץ - אחת מתשע
הקהלות בפולין
עיר חכמים וסופרים,
אשר בניהם ובנותיהם.
אנשים נשים וטף הי''ד.
נהרגו, נשרפו, ונחנקו
על קדוש השם והעם
ע''י הגרמנים
הארורים ומרעיהם ימ''ש
בגזרת השואה
Translation: For eternal memory. / 1588-1942 / Zamość [was] one of the nine communities in Poland. The city of sages and writers, that their sons and daughters, men, women, and children, May God avenge their blood, were killed, burned, strangled for the sanctification of the Name and people, by the cursed Germans and their wicked [collaborators], may their names be obliterated, during the Shoah.
On the middle slab of the monument, in Yiddish:
נאך גרויסע ליידן און פיין,
זענען זיי אומגעקומען
אין נע-ונד, אין די געטאם,
און אין טויט-לאגערן
נישט פארגעסן!
נישט פארגעבן!
ת' נ' צ' ב' ה
Translation: After great suffering and pain, / they perished / in wandering, in the ghettos, / and in death camps / Do not forget! / Do not forgive! / May their souls be bound in the bundle of life
On the middle slab of the monument, in English:
IN ETERNAL MEMORY
OF THE JEWISH MARTYRS
OF THE CITY OF ZAMOSC (POLAND)
WHO PERISHED UNDER THE NAZIS
AHD THEIR COLLABORATORS,
IN THE GHETTOS
AND DEATH CAMPS OF BELSEN
MAJDANEK AND OTHER PLACES
FORGET NOT! FORGIVE NOT!
On the middle slab of the monument, in French:
A LA MEMOIRE ETERNELLE
DES MARTYRS JUEFS
DE LA CITE DE ZAMOSC (POLOGNE)
EXTERMINES PAR LES NAZIS
ET PAR LEURS COLLABORATEURS
1939 - 1945
Translation: In eternal memory / of Jewish martyrs / of the city of Samosc (Poland), / killed by the Nazis / and their collaborators / 1939-1945.
On the plaque, in Yiddish:
אש פון דיע טויט-לאגער
אין דא געברענגט געווארן
צו קבורה
Translation: Ashes from the death camp were brought here for burial.
On the plaque, in English:
A HANDFUL OF ASHES
FROM THE DEATH CAMPS
LIES BURIED HERE
On the upper tier of the monument base, in Yiddish:
''היידאמאקן דורכגעגאנגען...
קהלות חרוב ונחרב געמאכט.
און איבער די חורבות, איבערן אש,
איבער די קעפ פון נשרפים,
פון יתומים און אלמנות...''
י''ל פרץ: "'די גאלדענע קייט'"
Translation: Haydamaks went through... / communities were destroyed and demolished. And through the ruins, through ashes, through the heads of the burned, orphans and widows... I.L. Peretz, Die goldene keyt [“The Golden Chain”]
"...אין שטוב אזוי נאך שטוב - יידן בלייבע שטילע,
וואם האבן ביים פארגיין נאך גאט געשענקט מחילה.
אין יעדן הויז אזוי... איז זייער לייב געבליבן דארט,
און מיט טויט די לופט געזעטיקט..."
מדרכי שטריגלער: "אין א פרעמדך דור"
Translation: "In house after house - Jews stay silent, / what happened to them only God can forgive. / And such is in every house... Their flesh remained there, / and with death the air is saturated ... / Mordechai Strigler, "In a Fremdn Dor"
quote from Mordechai Strigler, In a Fremdn Dor: Lider un Poemen (In a strange generation: Poems and ballads), 1947
On the lower tier of the monument base, in English:
THIS MONUMENT HAS BEEN ERECTED
BY THE LANDSLEIT FROM ZAMOSC
IN MONTREAL MAY 7, 1969
On the lower tier of the monument base, in Yiddish:
דער מאנומענט איז געשטעלט געווארן
דורך די זאמאשטשער אין מאנטרעאל
צו דער 25-טער יארצייט
פון חורבן זאמאשטש כ''ז ניסן תשכ''ז לפ''ק
Translation: The monument was erected by the people of Zamość in Montreal, for the 25th anniversary of the destruction of Zamość, 27 Nissan 1967.
Commissioned by
Landsleit from Zamosc
sub-set tree: 
At the turn of the 20th century, as more Jewish immigrants arrived in Montreal the city’s small middle-class Jewish Community needed to meet the burial needs of new, mostly poor, arrivals who had little affiliation with the local congregations. Out of this crisis, the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery was established on an undeveloped expanse of swampland, just outside the city. The Baron de Hirsch Cemetery was planned in1904 and officially opened in July 1905. The oldest gravestone is dated December 1904 (eight months before the cemetery actually opened). The Cemetery includes 16 memorial monuments to Holocaust victims.
The monument includes a quote from famed Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz, who was born in Zamosc; as well as one from the prolific Yiddish journalist and writer Mordechai Strigler (1921-1998), who was born to a Hasidic family in Stabrów, near Zamość. He was a prisoner in Majdanek and eleven other camps and was finally liberated at Buchenwald. In 1952 he emigrated to the United States.
"Holocaust Memorials of Canada," The Museum of Family History , https://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/hmc-02.htm (accessed January 14, 2025)
“History,” Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, https://barondehirsch.com/en/who-we-are/history/ (accessed January 14, 2025)