Obj. ID: 53963
Memorials Holocaust Memorial in La Tablada Jewish cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1971
To the main object: La Tablada cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Name of Monument
No official name
What/Who is commemorated?
Victims of the Holocaust
Description
The memorial is a paved area on which is raised a tower-like Holocaust memorial structure that contains ashes from Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Majdanek.
The tower is built on a square plan, with rectangular openings on two opposite sides. The tower is faced with rectangular white marble panels. A horizontal band with commemorative inscriptions in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Spanish runs around all four sides of the monument and projects slightly above the second row of white panels. Above this height of the tower are three more courses of panels; so, the area above the inscriptions is one-third higher than the area below.
One opening leads into a small central enclosed area with an octagonal plan. In the center of this space are buried ashes from the camps. An inscribed plaque with the names of the three camps is set in the middle of the floor. The opening opposite the entrance is closed by glass. The octagon plan rises to the top of the tower. There is no roof, so the inner shape of the tower frames the open sky.
A granite stele, added in 2005, is set close to the entrance of the tower. An inscription above the name of Survivor Eugenia Unger explains the purpose of the memorial.
To the left side of the tower on the perimeter of the platform are three separate sections of free-standing brick wall to which are attached memorial plaques. The wall segments appear to have been added after the initial monument construction, and the plaques have been affixed on different occasions. One wall segment is a free-standing semi-circular brick wall set closer to the main monument. Upon this is affixed a large round inscribed memorial plaque and beneath which are three rectangular plaques inscribed with the passage from Ezekiel 16:6.
On the other side of the monument from the brick wall, a series of broad stairs lead to the monument platform. A ramp for easier access that covers a portion of these steps was added later.
On the lower pavement level, abutting the platform, and added later, is a memorial sculpture of six red brick “arms” that extend out from the platform over the pavement. From each of these rises a slender concrete cylinder, left rough at the top, where electric lamps under domed covered emerge. This sculpture can be lit as a menorah.
Inscriptions
Around sides of the tower, in Hebrew:
יזכור
לזכר קדושי השואה שנהרגו ושהשמדו על ידי הנאנצים (התש - התשה)
Translation: In memory of the martyrs of the Holocaust who were killed and destroyed by the Nazis (5700-5705)
Around sides of the tower, in Spanish:
A LOS MARTIRES, VICTIMAS DEL EXTERMINIO NAZI (1939 -945. 5700-5705)
Translation: In memory of the martyrs of the Holocaust who were killed and who were destroyed by Nazis (1939-1945, 5700-5705)
Around sides of the tower, in Yiddish:
לזכר די קדושים וואס זענען בראכט געווארן דורך די נאציס אין די
יארן פון חורבן און אומקום (התש-התשה)
Translation: In memory of the martyrs who were killed by Nazis in the Years of Destruction (5700-5705)
On the exterior side with the glass-enclosed entry at the bottom on the left, is a small plaque, in Spanish:
ARO.
GUILLERMO
ALTCLAS
1971
Translation: Architect Guillermo Altclas 1971
On plaques on brick wall, a quote from Ezekiel 16:6 in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Spanish:
Y YO PASE JUNTO A TI,
Y TE VI REVOLCADA EN TUS SANGRES
Y TE DIJE: EN TUS SANGRES VIVIRAS
DIJISTE: EN TUS SANGRES VIVIRAS.
EZEQUIEL CAP. 16-6.
און איך בין פארבייגעגאנגען פארביי דיר
און האב דיך געזען זיך וואלגערן אין דיין בלוט
און איך האב געזאגט צו דיר: אין דיין בלוט: לעב
און איך האב געזאגט צו דיר: אין דיין בלוט: לעב
"ואעבור עליך ואראך מתבוססת בדמיך
ואמר לך בדמיך חיי בדמיך חיי"
יחזקאל טז.ו.
Translation (Ezekiel 16:6): And when I passed by thee, and saw thee wallowing in thy blood, I said unto thee: In thy blood, live; yea, I said unto thee: In thy blood, live.
On round plaque on brick wall
נזכור ולעד לא נשכח את זכרם של שישה מיליונים מבני עמנו
שנהרגו ושנשחטו ושנחנקו ושנקברו חיים על ידי הנאצים
אנו מתיחדים עם זכרם
של הקהלות ובתי האב מבית יעקב שהשמדו ונחרבו מתוך
מזימת רשע למחות את שם ישראל ותרבותו מתחת השמים.
אנו זוכרים ביראת כבוד
את עוז רוחם של אחינו לוחמי ומורדי הגיטאות שמסרו נפשם
על עמם בקדושה וטהרה. את המוני בית ישראל שמסרו נפשם על קדושת השם.
ה'י'ד'
Translation: We will remember and forever not forget the memory of six million of our people / who were killed and butchered and strangled and buried alive by the Nazis [an allusion to the memorial prayer Yizkor]. // We unite with their memory of the congregations and father's houses from the house of Jacob that were annihilated and destroyed by the evil plot to erase the name of Israel and its culture under heaven. // We remember respectfully / the courage of our brothers, fighters and uprisers in ghettos that sacrificed themselves / for their people in holiness and pureness [and] the crowds of the House of Israel who sacrificed themselves for the sanctification of the name. May God avenge their blood.
Plaque on brick wall, in Spanish and Hebrew:
in Hebrew:
למזכרת
נצח
לקדושו גלציה שהומתו
על ידי הרוצחים הנאצים
ומסרו נפשם על קדושת השם
התאחדות מרכזית של יהודי
גלציה בב. אירס התשה
שנת תקומת המדינה הישראלית 1948
Translation: In memory of the Galatians who were killed by the Nazi murderers and gave their lives for the sanctity of God. Central Association of the Jews of Galatia in Buenos Aires. The year of the establishment of the State of Israel was 1948.
In Spanish:
IN MEMORIAM
DE LOS MARTIRES JUDIOS
DE GALITZIA “POLONIA"
EXTERMINADOS POR LA BARBARIE NAZI
UNION CENTRAL ISRAELITA DE GALITZIA
EN LA ARGENTINA
Translation: In memory of the Jewish martyrs of Polish Galicia exterminated by the barbarian Nazi / Central Union of Jews of Galicia in Argentina
On the stele next to the monument, in Spanish:
ESTE MONUMENTO ES UN HOMENAJE
DESTINADO A PERPETUAR
LA MEMORIA DE LAS VICTIMAS
DE LA SHOA
AQUI SE PRESERVAN CENIZAS
PROVENIENTES DE LOS CAMPOS
NAZIS DE EXTERMINIO
ELEVEMOS UNA PLEGARIA
POR EL DESCANSO EN PAZ
DE NUESTROS HERMANOS
SOBREVIVIENTES DE LA SHOA
QUE VIVEN EN ARGENTINA
OCTUBRE 2005
EUGENIA UNGER
Translation: This monument is a tribute intended to perpetuate the memory of the victims of the Shoa. Here are preserved ashes from the Nazi extermination fields. We raise a prayer for the rest in peace of our brothers. / Shoa survivors living in Argentina, October 2005 / Eugenia Unger
Commissioned by
Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA)
Union Central Israelita De Galitzia En La Argentina (Plaque)
sub-set tree: 
| Cementerio Israelita de La Tablada F5H 7R, Av. Crovara 2824, B1766 La Tablada,
The La Tablada Israelite Cemetery (Spanish: Cementerio Israelita de La Tablada), also known simply as the La Tablada Cemetery, is located in the city of La Tablada, in the Greater Buenos Aires and serves as the primary burial place for the city’s Jewish population. It was established in 1936 and is operated by the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA). Not far past the original entrance building (1936) of the Tablada cemetery, to the right of the main path, is a paved area with a tower-like raised Holocaust memorial monument that contains ashes from Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Majdanek and originally built in 1946. Based on an inscription on the central memorial, it seems to have been expanded into its present monumental architectural form around the original burial site of ashes by architect Guillermo Altclas in 1971.
For several decades this was the primary Holocaust memorial monument in Buenos Aires, and by extension in all of Argentina. As such, there have been several subsequent additions to the monument, and to the larger memorial area in the cemetery which it is located. It was added to and expanded times for functional reasons (a ramp was added to allow wheelchair accessibility) and for commemorative purposes. Privately sponsored plaques, including one commemorating Jews martyred in Galicia, have been added around the memorial to commemorate individuals and groups.
Several survivors including those who fought in the Warsaw ghetto are buried very close to the monument.
“Las víctimas de la Shoá y los combatientes de los ghettos serán homenajeados en La Tablada,” Agencia de noticias (AJN), May 2, 2008, https://agenciaajn.com/noticia/abbas-las-fronteras-de-1967-son-una-precondicion-para-el-dialogo-53737 (accessed March 12, 2023)