Obj. ID: 52806
Memorials Krzepice Victims Monument in the Southern Tel Aviv (Holon, Bat Yam) Cemetery, Israel, 1980s/90s (?)
Memorial Name:
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
Jews of Krzepice, Poland, perished in the Holocaust.
Description:
The monument is located in the Western Alley of the cemetery, along with dozens of other Holocaust memorials built by Landsmannschaft organizations, survivors, and relatives.
The memorial is an upright stele decorated with a pediment, a frieze, and four pilasters, and set on the platform. The stele has a niche in its upper part and a door in its bottom part, in between - a plaque with a dedicatory inscription. The memorial design refers to the synagogue in Krzepice, Poland, which was used as an assembly site for Jews before their deportation to Auschwitz.
Two additional slabs, vertical and horizontal, shaped like a gravestone, are installed on the right side of the platform in front of the architectural structure.
The monument bears Hebrew inscriptions that honor the memory of the community. The community name is emphasized through the use of a larger font size. The inscriptions indicate that the monument contains the ashes of the Jewish victims and a scroll with the names.
The memorial is surrounded by a metal fence adorned with Stars of David.
Inscriptions:
On the pediment and the frieze, in Hebrew:
זכר עולם
לקדושי קהילת
קשפיץ
Translation: Eternal memory/ for the holy martyrs of the community/ of Krzepice.
On the metal plaque, between the pilasters:
אבינו מלכנו
פתח שערי רחמים
לדמעותינו
Translation: Our Father our King/ open the gates of mercy/ to our tears.
On the metal door, in Hebrew:
מגילת הקדושים
Translation: Scroll of the martyrs.
On the headstone, in Hebrew:
דגם המצבה
מיצג את קיר
החזית
בבית הכנסת
בקוז'ניצקה
ביום ז' תמוז
שנת התש"ב
הובלו ממקום זה
יהודי קשפיץ
והסביבה
ע"י הנאצים ימ"ש
להשמדה
במחנה אושויץ
Translation: The model of the tombstone / Represents the front wall of the synagogue in Kozienice / On the 7th of Tammuz in the year 5702 [1942] / the Jews of Kishpitz and the surrounding area / were taken from this place by the accursed Nazis, may their names be obliterated/ to be exterminated in the Auschwitz camp.
On the lying slab in Hebrew:
פה טמון
אפר קדושי
עירנו
Translation: Here lie/ the ashes of the martyrs/ of our city.
Commissioned by:
Holocaust survivors from Krzepice.
sub-set tree: 
Height of the entire memorial: 240 cm
Height of the memorial without the base: 15.5 cm
Width at the base: 72.5 cm
Length of the base: 141 cm
There is no memorial book published. It is known that the Israeli Organisation of Krzepice and its Vicinities installed a memorial plaque in the Holocaust Cellar (Martef Ha-Shoah) in Jerusalem in 1959. In 1963, the same organization published a call as it planned to collect materials around the world and publish the memorial book. The book was never published but at some later point, the same organization built a memorial in the cemetery in Holon.
For the images of the monumment from the 1990s (?), see
The Archive of Ghetto Fighters' House, https://infocenters.co.il/gfh/multimedia/Photos/Idea/36643.jpg, https://infocenters.co.il/gfh/multimedia/Photos/Idea/52474.jpg.
The World Society of Częstochowa Jews
and Their Descendants, https://www.czestochowajews.org/history/yizkor-books/krzepice-booklet/, https://www.czestochowajews.org/history/yizkor-books/krzepice-beyond-silence/#., https://www.czestochowajews.org/ (accessed November 10, 2024)