Obj. ID: 52848  Tomaszów Mazowiecki Victims Monument in the Southern Tel Aviv (Holon, Bat Yam) Cemetery, Israel

Memorial Name

No official name

Who is Commemorated?

The memorial commemorates 15,000 victims of the Jewish community in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland.

 Description:

The memorial is located in the Western Alley of the cemetery in Holon, along with dozens of other Holocaust memorials erected by Landsmannschaft organizations. The ashes of victims brought from Treblinka are buried inside the monument.

The memorial is an arched structure with two openings.  Inside the right arch, hangs a large metal ball with engravings on it: a train and people going to crematoria. The inscription formed of large metal letters and attached to the central pillar, reads: Tomaszów (upper row) and Mazowiecki (bottom row). On the upper parts of the letters in the upper row there are reliefs depicting houses going up in flames. On the bottom parts of the letters in the bottom row, there are reliefs depicting the blood. The letter tzadi (second from the left) is dripping with blood and a puddle is formed on the floor. 

Inside the right arch, there is a plaque shaped like a door. The plaque is inscribed in Hebrew with a dedication to the Jews of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. Below the door-shaped plaque, there is a small rectangular plaque added later with the name of the sculptor. Inside the left arch, there is a plaque installed in the 2010s (?) and devoted to the members of the Rozenberg family killed in the Holocaust. 

According to "The Center Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel" website, the memorial depicts a monstrous face, where the metal ball represents an eyeball and the letters of Tomaszów Mazowiecki on the central column, form a mouth with teeth. The image posted on the site and probably made in the 1990s shows a great resemblance to the monstrous face but the monument in its contemporary condition shows little resemblance to the monster. 

Inscription:

On the central pillar, in Hebrew:

טומשיב
מזוב'צק

Translation: Tomaszów Mazowiecki

On the plaque, inside the right arch, In Hebrew:

ונתתי בביתי ובחומותיי יד ושם [ישעיהו נו ה]
יזכור
אלוהים את נשמותיהם הקדושות והטהורות של חמישה עשר אלף יהודי טומשוב מזוביצ'ק הי"ד [= השם ינקם דמם]
שנהרגו ושנשחטו ושנשרפו ושנחנקו ושנקברו חיים
בידי הצוררים הגרמנים ועוזריהם בשואה 1939-1945
ארץ אל תכסי דמם
אפר קדושי עירנו מהמשרפות בטרבלינקה
נטמן במצבה זו

Translation: I will give to them in my house and within my walls a monument and a name [Isaiah 56:5] / Remember / God the holy and pure souls of fifteen thousand Jews from Tomaszów Mazowiecki, May God avenge their blood / Who were killed and butchered and burned and suffocated and buried alive [allusion to the memorial prayer Yizkor]/ by the German oppressors and their helpers during the Holocaust,  1939-1945 / Earth, do not cover their blood [Job 16:18] // Ashes of our city's martyrs from the crematoria in Treblinka are buried in this gravestone.

On the small rectangular plaque, inside the right arch added in the 1990s - 2000s the name of the sculptor is written in Hebrew: 

עיצוב וביצוע:
אסתר אייזן

Translation: Design and construction Esther Eisen

Inide the left arch, on the plaque, added in the 2000a-2010s, in Hebrew:

 יזכור אלוהים את נשמותיהם הקדושות והטהורות
של הורי ובני משפחתי
שנרצחו על ידי הנאצים בימי השואה (1940-1945)

[followed by names]

Translation: Remember God the holy and pure souls of my parents and members of my family, who were murdered by Nazis during the Shoah (1940-1945) / [followed by names]

 Commissioned by

Landsmannschaft Organization of Jews from Tomaszów Mazowiecki