Obj. ID: 56583
  Memorials  Kol Israel Foundation Holocaust Memorial in the Zion Memorial Park in Bedford Heights, OH, USA, 1961

Memorial Name

Kol Israel Foundation Holocaust National Memorial

Who/What is Commemorated?

Jewish Victims of the Holocaust

Description:

The memorial is located on land within Zion Memorial Park. The first part, built (1961, is a large monument with a tripartite rectangular body, from which rises an obelisk at the center point. Inscriptions are on both sides of the body, and the obelisk's termination is a 3-dimensional Magen David.

A crypt is buried beneath the monument that contains ashes believed to be the remains of Jews murdered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and Bialystok death camps, and also artifacts that belonged to Jews killed at the camps.

On the west side, which is intended as the front, there are two rectangular relief sculptures embedded into the large monument. One of the reliefs represents a woman holding a young girl by the hand while she carries a baby. Flames surround the figures. The other relief represents a bearded man running who carries a diminutive Torah scroll while flames rise around him. Next to and beneath the relief are four inscriptions in Hebrew and English.  From the base of the west of the monument, a low rectangular platform protrudes, marking the burial crypt. A small bronze plaque is affixed above thוs identifying it as the site of burial of the ashes of Holocaust victims.

On the back of the granite memorial are inscribed the names of family members remembered, and a prayer by Rabbi Isadore Pickholtz.

Surrounding this monument is a paved plaza encircled by a low wall. Wide breaks in the wall at opposite points allow entrance into the memorial space. The wall is faced in rectangular polished black granite slabs inscribed with names of victims, survivors, or related dedications and quotations. Within the enclosed area are two flagpoles – one flying the American flag and the other the Israeli flag. Six lamps are placed between the main entrance and the monument – three on each side of the entrance.  Six tall grey granite stele (called pillars in online descriptions of the memorial) are spread out within the enclosed memorial plaza. They are aligned parallel to the curved side walls, three on each side.

Inscriptions:

Inscriptions on original (1961) plaques:

Upper plaque on the obelisk, Hebrew:

מזכרת נצח לקהילות הקודש

ולנשמות שש מאות רבוא

בני ישראל אנשים נשים וטף הי'ד [=השם יקום דמם]

שנרצחו באכזריות בידי הנאצים

בשנות ת'ש – תש'ה

ארץ אל תכסי דמם

יזכרם אלהינו לטובה עם שאר

צדיקי עולם

ויסתירם בסתר כנפיו לעולמים

ת' נ' צ' ב' ה' [תהי נשמתם צרורה בצרור החיים]

Translation: Eternal memorial to the holy communities and souls, six million people of Israel, men, women and children, May God avenge their blood, who were brutually killed by Nazis, 1939-1945, Earth, do not cover their blood [Job 16:18], Remember them for good, our god, among all the world's righteous [prayer Av HaRachamim],  cover them in the cover of His wings forever [prayer Yizkor], May their souls be bound in the bundle of life

Middle plaque on the obelisk, in English:

AN ETERNAL MEMORIAL

TO THE SIX MILLION JEWISH

MARTYRS BRUTALLY

TORTURED AND KILLED BY

THE NAZIS 1939-1945

MAY OUR GOD REMEMBER

THEM WITH ALL THE

RIGHTEOUS OF THE WORLD

MAY THEIR SOULS BE BOUND

UP IN THE BOND

OF ETERNAL LIFE

Lower plaque on the obelisk, in English and Hebrew:

ERECTED BY THE KOL ISRAEL

FOUNDATION AND DEDICATED

BY THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

OF CLEVELAND 1961-תשכ"א

Plaque from the left side of the obelisk, in Hebrew and English, with one of the principles of faith formulated by Maimonides: 

 אני מאמין באמונה שלמה שתהיה תחית המתים

בעת שיעלה רצון מאת הבורא יתברך שמו

 I BELIEVE WITH PERFECT FAITH THAT THERE

WILL BE A REVIVAL OF THE DEAD AT A TIME

WHICH WILL PLEASE THE CREATOR, BLESSED

AND EXALTED BE HIS NAME FOREVER AND EVER

Plaque from the right side of the obelisk, in Hebrew and English, with one of the principles of faith formulated by Maimonides:  

אני מאמין באמונה שלמה בביאת המשיח ואף על פי

שיתמהמה אם כל זה אחכה לו בכל יום שיבא

I BELIEVE WITH PERFECT FAITH

IN THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH

AND THOUGH HE MAY TARRY

I DAILY WAIT FOR HIS COMING  

On a bronze plaque, in front of the obelisk, in Hebrew and English:

"והביאותים מירכתי ארץ"

BENEATH THIS MONUMENT REPOSE

ASHES OF OUR BRETHREN FROM THE

CONCENTRATION CAMPS OF EUROPE

1933 - 1945

THEIR MEMORY WILL BE ENSHRINED

IN OUR HEARTS FOREVER.

Translation: Hebrew is an allusion to Jeremiah 31:7 "I will... gather them from the ends of the earth"

On the small plaque at the bottom of the obelisk, in English:

Please
put candles
in holders

On the rear of the obelisk and the block to the right of the obelisk:

[names of killed Jews]

On the rear, to the left from the obelisk, prayer Av Ha-Rachamin in Hebrew and English:

אב הרחמים, שוכן מרומים

ברחמיו העצזמים הוא יפקוד ברחמים

החסידים והישרים והתמימים

קהלות הקדש שמסרו נפשם על קדשת השם

הנאהבים והנעימים בחייהם ובמותם לא נפרדו

מנשרים קלו ומאריות נברו, לעשות רצון קונם

יזכרם אלקינו לטובה, עם שאר צדיקי עולם

וינקום לעינינו נקמת דם עבדיו השפוך

ה עז לעמו יתן

ה' יברך את עמו בשלום

FATHER OF COMPASSION, WHO DWELLS ON HIGH,

IN HIS POWERFUL COMPASSION MAY HE RECALL

WITH COMPASSION

THE DEVOUT THE UPRIGHT, AND THE PERFECT ONES;

THE HOLY CONGREGATIONS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THE

SANCTIFICATION OF THE NAME

WHO WERE BELOVED AND PLEASANT IN THEIR LIFETIME

AND IN THEIR DEATH WERE NOT PARTED

THEY WERE QUICKER THAN EAGLES AND STRONGER THAN

LIONS TO DO THEIR CREATOR'S WILL

MAY HASHEM REMEMBER THEM FOR GOOD WITH

THE OTHER RIGHTEOUS OF THE WORLD

MAY HE, BEFORE OUR EYES, EXACT RETRIBUTION

FOR THE SPILLED BLOOD OF HIS SERVANTS

HASHEM WILL GIVE MIGHT TO HIS PEOPLE,

HASHEM WILL BLESS HIS PEOPLE WITH PEACE 

THIS PRAYER PROVIDED

BY RABBI ISIDORE PICKHOLTZ

On enclosing wall (1996):

On the enclosing wall, on the inside and outside, in English: 

[names of perished Jews]

On the enclosing wall, to the left of the entrance, in Hebrew and English:

in Hebrew:

זכרונם לברכה

Translation: May their memory be blessed

In English, the dedicatory inscriptions are accompanied by emblems of the Israeli and American army as well as the Kol Israel Foundation of Cleveland and Ohio:

IN MEMORIAM 

THIS TABLET IS DEDICATED TO ALL

JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN EUROPE

THAT WERE ANIHILATED

INCLUDING THEIR HISTORY

THE SYNAGOGUES WERE DEMOLISHED

THE CEMETERIES DESTROYED

AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE MURDERED

FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN BEING

OF THE JEWISH FAITH

KOL ISRAEL FOUNDATION

SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST

HONORS THE MEMORY OF THE

UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES

WHO DIED DEFENDING OUR COUNTRY

SO WE CAN LIVE IN FREEDOM

KOL ISRAEL FOUNDATION

SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST

RECOGNIZES AND HONORS

THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES

FOR ESTABLISHING AND DEFENDING

THE STATE OF ISRAEL

To the left of the entrance, on the corner pillar, in English:

HIS MEMORIAL WALL

WAS CONSTRUCTED

WITH LOVE, LABOR

AND MATERIALS

CONTRIBUTED BY

STEVE SLOMOVITZ

On the block, left of the entrance:

"The things I saw beggar description... The visual

evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty,

and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick."

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe

from a letter to Chief of Staff George Marshall

On the pillar, right of the entrance, in Hebrew and English:

in Hebrew:

לזכרון עולם

5757

1996

Translation: In eternal memory, 5757, 1996

In English:

THIS COMMEMORATIVE WALL

WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY

THE

KOL ISRAEL FOUNDATION

OF CLEVELAND

SURVIVORS OF THE

HOLOCAUST

AND THE JEWISH

COMMUNITY FEDERATION

OF CLEVELAND

On the block, right of the entrance, in Yiddish and English:

in Yiddish:

אייביק וועלן מיר נעדענקען 
די גיבורים און קדושים פון אונדזער פאלק

Translation: We will remember forever the heroes and martyrs of our people. 

In English:

 For the dead and the living we must
bear witness

In English, next to the insignia for Space Shuttle Columbia:

Ilan Ramon
child of
Holocaust
survivors
and
hero of
Israeli
defence
forces

Bronze plaque, on the enclosing wall:

Donated by the Abraham,
Rosenthal and Shafer Families
Kristallnachet
November 9-10, 1938

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
The World must never forget

[the depiction of a synagogue in flames]]

Ohio Historical Marker (recto) (2016):

OHIO

HISTORICAL MARKER 

KOL ISRAEL FOUNDATION

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL

On May 28, 1961, the Kol Israel Foundation, a

Cleveland organization of Holocaust survivors,

dedicated this monument in remembrance of the

attempted genocide against the Jewish people by

Nazi Germany during World War II. The monument

is believed to be one of the first of its kind in the

United States. Human remains, ashes and artifacts

reclaimed from three concentration camps are

buried beneath the monument.

(Continued on other side) 

KOL ISRAEL FOUNDATION

THE OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION

2016    129-18

Ohio Historical Marker (verso) (2016):

OHIO HISTORICAL MARKER

KOL ISRAEL FOUNDATION

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL

(Continued from other side)

On surrounding walls, one can read the names of

family members lost in the Holocaust and there-

after who otherwise may not have a fitting grave.

Other inscriptions relating to significant historical

events also appear. The monument is the site of an

annual commemoration ceremony between the Jewish

High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

to recall the Holocaust and departed victims. As

required by Jewish tradition, graves are to be

visited by mourners between the High Holidays to

say Kaddish, the prayer for the dead.

KOL ISRAEL FOUNDATION

THE OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION

2016   129-18

Commissioned by