Obj. ID: 56665
Memorials The Holocaust Memorial of the city of New Orleans, LA, USA, 2003
Memorial Name
New Orleans Holocaust Memorial
Who/What is Commemorated?
Memorial to the six million Jewish people and other victims of the Holocaust
Description:
The New Orleans Holocaust Memorial is a nine-panel public artwork set back from and overlooking a public walking path through the park along the water. Along the main park path another veers off to the memorial, announced by a free-standing convex curved concrete wall inscribed in large letters with the memorial name. Facing the wall and reading the inscription, the wall top slopes up to the left. On the inner (concave) face of the curved wall are inscribed names of the memorial sponsors, with the Goldring Family Foundation apparently the largest donor.
Beyond this entrance wall, a winding brick path leads to the memorial. Along the way, plaques affixed to the path’s low boundary stone wall provide information about the memorial and some history about the Holocaust. Behind the wall is planted and well-tended greenery.
The path spirals up a gentle slope and curves in on a central oval-shaped plaza, paved in concrete that is inscribed with a compass star indicating the direction of the cardinal points, and it is surrounded by a low stone wall. The tops of the wall, at a height that allows sitting, are inscribed with memorial decorations to families killed in the Holocaust. In the center of the plaza stands the monument, consisting of nine tall colored aluminum panels attached in a series within a large metal frame, surrounded by a low modular metal enclosure. This is probably not part of the aesthetic and symbolic design of the memorial but is intended to keep people from climbing on the artwork. Still, in style and material is part of the overall design, not a security afterthought.
As one walks around the sculpture, the nine panels appear to move too, creating a series of images, including recognizable Jewish symbols and abstract color images that are intended to describe the emotions and trials of victims but also to serve as a tribute to them. A total of ten images are visible throughout the piece. Time plays an important role in the appreciation of the memorial. As the viewer moves around the structure and the images change and distort with each motion, allowing for multiple – even infinite – reactions to and interpretations of the memorial’s narrative and symbolic meanings.
Inscriptions:
At the entrance:
NEW ORLEANS
HOLOCAUST
MEMORIAL
Bronze plaque on the right of the path approaching the memorial:
STEERING COMMITTEE FOR
THE NEW ORLEANS HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
RABBI EDWARD PAUL COHN, CHAIRMAN
MAX NATHAN, JR., PRESIDENT ALAN ROSENBLOOM CAMPAIGN CHAIR
DARRYL BERGER ALLAN L. KATZ
FELICIA FUKSMAN SAUNDRA KATZ LEVY
SHEP ZITLER
ARTIST: YAAKOV AGAM
ARCHITECT: SIZELER ARCHITECTS
CONTRACTOR: LANDIS CONSTRUCTION CO. 5763 • 2003
First plaque on left of path approaching memorial:
Between 1933 and 1945, the German Nazi regime and their
collaborators systematically persecuted and exterminated six million
European Jews: men, women, and 1 1/2 million children. The
majority of the Jewish deaths occurred in Nazi death camps such as
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor, Treblinka and others between
1942-45. This period of persecution and annihilation of Jews has
come to be known as the Holocaust, derived from the Greek word
holokauston - a sacrifice by fire.
Jews were not the only victims of the Holocaust. The Nazi war
machine destroyed millions of others because of their ethnicity,
political beliefs, sexual orientation, or physical and mental disability.
But anti-Semitism was the motive force of Nazism; as Elie Wiesel
observed, “not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims.”
Holocaust stands as one of the greatest crimes against humanity,
and as such is a powerful testimonial to the price the world pays for
moral indifference in the face of injustice. Nazi doctrine was racism
brought to its logical conclusion. We best honor the memory of the
victims of the Holocaust by steadfast vigilance against racial, ethnic,
and religious prejudice.
Informational signage about the memorial set at the end of the path, near the memorial includes a description of the symbolism on the left:
1 The first view, a large yellow Star of David, symbolizes the persecution and humiliation
of the Jews by their Nazi tormentors and collaborators.
2 This image expresses the dark period when, for the Jews and others, the world became void of light and hope, morality and compassion. Out of this darkness appear six colors representing the souls of the six million Jewish victims who perished in the Holocaust; One and a half million were children. The seventh square is added in loving tribute to the righteous Gentiles, homosexuals, gypsies, and all the other victims of Nazi hate.
3 Behind the seven colors appears a symbolic representation of societal destruction. The disintegrated yellow Star of David can be seen in the background. The mood is one of complete devastation and desperation.
4 The chaotic image expresses human misery and the absence of empathy and religious and moral values, including reverence for life itself. But out of this chaos emerges a rainbow, the biblical sign of hope, renewal, and the reassertion of life's worth.
5 We see now the color of the sky that represents human hope and Divine holiness. Out of this color of hope appears, in all its majestic color, a sacred Menorah symbolizing the faithfulness and spiritual values of the Jewish people. The Menorah that stood in the Temple of Jerusalem also represents the miracle of the Hanukkah Lights, a timeless emblem of human liberty and the victory over tyranny. The Menorah here is represented by a rainbow and a reversed rainbow.
6 Behind the Menorah appears a double rainbow representing heaven and earth, a call to all people from all faiths, races, and nations that never again must anyone experience such horror on earth. Behind it appears the biblical rainbow, the sacred covenant between God and humankind.
7 Looking back, the symbols of the victim's oppression and destruction can be seen. Behind the yellow Star of David are the chaos, murder, and destruction of those torturous years –
The Holocaust, 1933-1945.
Text about the memorial and the artist on the right:
THE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
of the city of New Orleans, 2003-5763
An artistic visual prayer in memory of the six
million Jews of Europe, and those millions of other
victims, who were tortured and murdered by the
Nazis and their collaborators from 1933 – 1945.
The artist, Yaacov Agam, an Israeli, is the pioneer
of kinetic art. Born in 1928, Agam’s works are
included in the collections of the world's major
museums.
Commissioned by
City of New Orleans
The New Orleans Holocaust Memorial Committee, Rabbi Edward Paul Cohn, Chairman
sub-set tree: 
*Memorials | Holocaust-related memorial | Memorial to homosexual victims of Nazism
*Memorials | Holocaust-related memorial | Memorial to Roma and Sinti victims of Nazism
*Memorials | Memorial to the Holocaust (Shoah) victims | Memorial to children
| Bienville Street & River Walk New Orleans
Concrete (wall and paving)
Stone (walls)
Painted aluminum panels (sculpture)
Bronze (plaque)
Mounted paper and acrylic cover (informational signs)
Metal frame of sculpture = approximately 8 meters long
Metal frame of sculpture = approximately – 1.6 meters wide
This account is excerpted and adapted almost verbatim from [Kelsey, 2017, pp. 49-67]:
In 1997, after viewing the New England Holocaust Memorial on a trip to Boston, Rabbi Edward P. Cohn approached Mayor Marc Morial about building a Holocaust Memorial in New Orleans. This was at a time when American Nazi David Duke was achieving prominence in Louisiana politics.
The Rabbi recalled seeing Boston’s memorial and thinking New Orleans should have something permanent to remember the Holocaust, its victims, and the survivors that made their home in the city. In a 2003 article from The Dallas Morning News, Cohn spoke again about his reasoning behind suggesting the Holocaust memorial, stating, “We want to teach people about the Holocaust and bring an answer to those loathsome individuals who say it never happened. We want to show people it was real and make sure it never happens again.”
In his speech at the memorial’s dedication, the rabbi would again explain, “[…] there was nothing abstract or theoretical about either those who died or those who killed […] it is all so real and so undeniably true.” Felicia Fuksman, Holocaust survivor and member of the New Americans, echoed Cohn in an interview with the Times-Picayune, “I hope that people will come to the realization that the Holocaust did exist and did happen. This memorial is for the ones who know, to honor us, and for those who don’t know, to enlighten.” …
New Orleans did not take a traditional route when deciding on a design. Before a competition could be held, a local doctor suggested his friend and artist Yaacov Agam be considered to design the memorial.
Yaacov Agam is an Israeli artist who specializes in optical art. Agam’s work has been featured in New Orleans’ galleries on multiple occasions in the 1970s and 1980s, and in 1983, the Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation hosted an evening with Agam to raise money for the Jewish Welfare Fund. The project committee appointed by Mayor Morial reached out to Agam, and he accepted the offer. Without the selection process, New Orleans may not have been able partake in the conversations that they otherwise would have had through a design competition, but “[…] Agam from the beginning shared the feelings of the Memorial Steering Committee that the edifice constructed in New Orleans should acknowledge the victims, not the murders.” Rabbi Cohn recalled a conversation with Agam where he explained what he envisioned in the memorial’s design. He told the artist: If you can find a way of looking to the future with optimism […] that people have learned from the horror, that never again! A united, universal statement of determination… and that people would affirm the sanctity of every human being. In other words, Rabbi Cohn and the committee envisioned a memorial where survivors could find peace in the memorial’s design and other visitors could learn from the destruction of the Holocaust.
“We didn’t want a conglomeration of wire and pile of bodies and smokestacks of crematoria”, Rabbi Cohn stated in an interview with the Times Picayune. Ultimately, both the memorial committee and Agam wanted the message of the memorial to read as a juxtaposition between “horror and revival”. Agam’s style of art aligned well with the message the creators hoped to portray in the memorial. In an interview with the Taipei Times, Agam says his work, influenced by his Jewish upbringing, holds a universal message of peace and friendship that all humans are obligated to have in order to keep the world going. Agam was raised as an Orthodox Jew and as a young man worried about what his interest in art would mean for his Jewish faith, which prohibits the creation of a “graven image.” Thus, Agam began to explore methods of abstract art and art with movement in order to circumvent the use of a static, or graven, image.
Agam works in the kinetic style of art or optic art, which is “[…] art that depends on motion for its effects.” One of the goals of kinetic art is to introduce the element of time into a painting or sculpture. Agam is particularly focused on this element of time, which he calls the ‘fourth dimension, hoping to “[…] defy its limits and honor its passage.”
Jagneaux, Kelsey N., Through Horror, Humiliation, and Hope: Holocaust Commemoration and Memorialization in New Orleans, Louisiana, (M.A Thesis, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2017), https://www.proquest.com/openview/4e0ed8c187e380277bbe15da2040648b/1?cbl=18750&pq-origsite=gscholar (accessed April 3, 2025)
Noland, Bruce. “Survivors will be at dedication of Holocaust marker-Colorful monument is at Woldenberg Park”, Times-Picayune, (New Orleans, LA), (May 31, 2003, in America’s News—Historical and Current)
Watters, Nicholette and Clio Admin. "New Orleans Holocaust Memorial." Clio: Your Guide to History. (June 20, 2020), https://theclio.com/entry/106185 (accessed April 3, 2025)