Obj. ID: 56641
  Memorials  B'nai Tikvah Holocaust Memorial Cortyuard in Canton, MA, USA, 1970

To the main object: B'nai Tikvah Synagogue in Canton, MA, USA

Memorial Name

B’nai Tikvah Holocaust Memorial

Who/What is Commemorated?

Six Million Jewish Holocaust Victims

Description:

The memorial is outdoors, adjacent to the west side of the synagogue building and consists of a paved, approximately rectangular courtyard. The space consists of three main memorial elements: a central sculpture, a wall mosaic, and four memorial benches.   

In the center is a gray granite sculptural monument made of seven large precisely cut and polished stones that create a ground-level six-pointed star, on top of which rise three upright triangular cut stones. These have the names of killing sites inscribed on their sides, and together support a metal urn and electric light, in the form of a burning flame.

On the east wallof the memorial space (west wall of the synagogue) is a large colorful ceramic tile mosaic, approximately 8 feet long and 5.5 feet tall (approx. 5.5 meters x 1.7 meters). It is set on a ledge and is protected by a slight overhand from the building roof.  To the right of the mosaic is a door into a utility and storage room of the synagogue.

Four memorial benches are installed against the memorial space’s low west wall.

In a statement prepared for Temple Beth Am, the artist David Holleman described the mosaic:

“DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL TO THE "SIX MILLION" FOR THE MEMORIAL COURTYARD, TEMPLE BETH AM, RANDOLPH, MASS.

There are three main design elements to the mural.

I. The lower third represents the trapped Jews of Europe, encased, starting from the left, by a wall, then furnaces (with open doors showing Hebraic flames), and on the right side by more walls.

II. Acting as a crescendo are the Jews represented over long periods of time by helmet-like hats with balls on them that the Jews were forced to wear in Medieval times to the fur hats ("shtreimels") of Russia, yarmulkes, tallises, wigs, soft hats; all of these representing the Jews of today. Out of the confusion of these forms are hands in the attitude of the ceremony of looking at the nails as a man does in the Havdalah services at the separation of the Sabbath, and the hands open, reaching towards the crown which has the Seder wish, "And next year, Jerusalem."

III. Above the people are the religious implements that Hitler also wanted to destroy: the Magilla, the Ten Commandments and the Torah. Behind these are the European ghettoes. All of this alone was so harsh that it was the committee's desire, to which I agreed, to add that which these people had lived and died for -- the Ingathering. There is a whip-snag in the upper parts of the city of Jerusalem, with the old city represented on the right-hand side and the new city, the city to come, the city that these people could not have possibly imagined, on the left.

David Holleman

Artist

Inscriptions:

Along the base of the granite star, a passage from Jeremiah 31:11 in English and Hebrew:

AND THEIR SOUL SHALL

BE AS A WATERED GARDEN

AND THEY SHALL NOT

SUFFER ANGUISH ANYMORE

והיתה נפשם

כגן רזה

ולא יומיפן

לדאגה עוד

Names of killing sites:

Treblinka 

Majdanek 

Bergen Belsen 

Belzec 

Auschwitz 

Jadwiga 

Treblinka 

Buchenwald 

Ravensbruck

Commissioned by