Obj. ID: 54252 Holocaust Memorial by United Bucoviner Association of Canada in the Baron de Hirsch Jewish Cemetery in Montreal, Canada
Name of Monument
No official name
What/Who is commemorated?
Holocaust victims in Bucovina, Bessarabia, Roumania and Transilvania.
Description
The monument is set back from main transverse road in the cemetery. It consists of four cut and finished stack grey granite blocks, each of a different size and shape, that get smaller as they rise. Two unadorned rectangular horizontal blocks of diminishing size form a lower and upper base. On these are set two more ascending blocks, each wider than tall, but taller than thick. That is, they are slabs, set on edge.
The sides of the lower one (third stone in the stack) are made to appear like flanking fluted cylinders, abutting the central panel. Each cylinder has two horizontal “belt” bands decorated with an incised floral pattern of wild roses. The front face of this stone is cut and polished in such a way as to give two tons of gray: a darker background, into which is inscribed in the top part two Magen David symbols flanking a five-branched menorah. In the lighter area is a dedicatory inscription Hebrew and English. On the back of this stone is inscribed in English, in large letters, the name of the sponsoring organization.
The front of the top stone repeats the name of the organization, and this is surmounted by a relief carving of a bowl of wild roses set beneath an arch. The back of the top stone is left undecorated.
Inscriptions
On the front, in English:
UNITED BUCOVINER
ASSOCIATION OF CANADA
On the front, in Hebrew:
הנאהבים והנעימים בהייהם ובמותם לא נפרדו
לזכר נשמות הקדושים והטהורים
מבוקובינה ביסאראביה רומיניה וטרנסילבאניה
שנהרגו ושנרצחו על קידוש השם
בשנות ת"ש תש"ה
ד'ינקם נקמת דמם השפוך ת'נ'צ'ב'ה
Translation: The beloved and the pleasant in their lives and in their deaths did not say goodbye, in memory of the holy and pure souls from Bucovina Bessarabia Romania and Transylvania who were killed and who were murdered for the sanctification of Hashem in the years 1940 – 1945. Their blood will be avenged. May their souls be bound up in the bond of life.
On the front, in English:
IN LASTING TRIBUTE TO THE COUNTLESS NUMBER OF
MEN, WOMEN and CHILDREN, BRUTALLY MASSACRED
IN BUCOVINA, BESSARABIA, ROUMANIA and TRANSYLVANIA
1940 1945
On rear of monument:
UNITED BUCOVINER ASS'N
OF CANADA
Commissioned by
United Bucoviner Association of Canada
15 image(s)
At the turn of the 20th century, as more Jewish immigrants arrived in Montreal the city’s small middle-class Jewish Community needed to meet the burial needs of new, mostly poor, arrivals who had little affiliation with the local congregations. Out of this crisis, the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery was established on an undeveloped expanse of swampland, just outside the city. The Baron de Hirsch Cemetery was planned in 1904 and officially opened in July 1905. The oldest gravestone is dated December 1904 (eight months before the cemetery opened).
The Cemetery includes 16 memorial monuments to Holocaust victims. This monument is one of the earliest. It was erected in 1954.
“History,” Baron de Hirsch - Back River Cemeteries., https://barondehirsch.com/en/who-we-are/history/ (accessed June 13, 2024)
“Holocaust Memorials of Canada en Souvenir Eternel,” Museum of Family History., https://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/hmc-02.htm (accessed June 13, 2024)