Obj. ID: 33328
Jewish Architecture In Memory of Martyrs of All Time Memorial at the synagogue in Tata, Hungary, 2004
To the main object: Synagogue in Tata, Hungary
Memorial Name:
“In Memory of Martyrs of All Time”
(Komárom-Esztergom County Holocaust Memorial)
Who is Commemorated?
Jews of Tata deported to labor and death camps
Description:
The sculpture is placed along the flank of the former synagogue and is visible from the street through an iron fence. It represents a procession of life-size nude male figures with their hands bound behind their backs. There are six blocks, with an assumed six figures in all. Each figure is increasing encased in granite. Four figures are clearly visible – at least in part. The fifth can barely be made out within the stone, and the final figure is not visible but is assumed to be fully enclosed within a large block of polished stone.
This composition references Michelangelo’s famous series of “slaves” figures that are unfinished, and appear strapped in large blocks of marble. In the Tata memorial, the imprisoned figures have large blocks on their shoulders, and stone also entraps them around their legs until the entire bodies are covered.
The sculpture can be reached by a series of low stairs made by squared stones that lead to the rear of the procession. In a sense, the viewer can “participate” in this deportation by standing behind the figures, perhaps to imagine a similar fate of imprisonment, hard labor, and death. Between the steps and the first figure is an empty pedestal covered with small memorial stones.
Commissioned by
Komárom-Esztergom County
For the plaque with the information about the monument situated in the vestibule of the synagogue, see
For the memorial stone established in 1994 is situated nearby, see
11 image(s)
sub-set tree:
After 1944, the synagogue was used as a warehouse. Beginning in 1977, the building housed the Museum of Greek and Roman Statue Copies. As of 2021, the synagogue was in the process of restoration. An inscribed granite stone in the building’s garden commemorates the Jews of Tata deported to the Auschwitz death camp.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day on 18 November 2004, the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary, the County dedicated Maria Lugossy’s memorial sculptural work, Martyrs of All Time. At that time, the synagogue was declared a Holocaust memorial site by the Komárom-Esztergom County.
"Minden idők mártírjainak emlékére," Public Map of Monuments, https://www.kozterkep.hu/16167/minden-idok-martirjainak-emlekere (accessed August 24, 2022)
Video of artist Maria Lugossy talking about the memorial in Tata, Hungary, https://youtu.be/rejjm2e8gL8 (accessed December 26, 2021)