Obj. ID: 44471 Holocaust Memorial in the New Jewish Cemetery in Rhodes, Greece, 1949
Who is Commemorated?
Jews of Rhodes and Kos killed in Holocaust
Description
The Holocaust memorial is located on the north side of the cemetery. It is approached along a path that branches of on the left from the main cemetery axis leading from the entrance. The path to the monument is lined with well-tended rosebushes and low hedges.
The monument is built as an interpretation of the ancient Greek style of religious and funerary architecture. A low rectangular platform is surmounted by a knee-high metal fence, which is only open on the east side. The width of the opening aligns with the width of the monument.
The moment consists of two main parts. A tall aedicule framed by fluted pilasters and topped by a pediment and acroteria. Set between the pilasters is a single tall plaque with an arched top, inscribed commemorative text in three languages (Hebrew, French, and Greek). The monument is made of gleaming white marble. The only decoration is a low relief Magen David in the pediment, and three classical-style acroteria on the apex and corners of the pediment. In front of the aedicula and beneath the memorial inscription is set a large tomb-like structure, similar to the hollow stone boxes which mark many Sephardic graves. This is covered by a large marble slab, laid flat, and inscribed with the family names of the Jews of Rhodes and Kos who were deported and killed. The end of this slab at the bottom of the inscription, facing the memorial entrance, is curved.
Inscriptions
In Hebrew:
זאת המצבה
זכרון קודש לאלפיים
הקדושם הי''ד מבני
קהלתנו ק''ק רודוס
אשר נרצחו בשואה
של הזרים הנאצים
במחנות התופת
שבגרמניה הרשעה
תש''ד תש''ה
ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.
Translation:
In French:
EN MEMOIRE
DES DEUX MILLE MARTYRS
DE LA COMMUNAUTE JUIVE
DE RHODES ET COS
BRUTALEMENT ANEANTIS
PAR LES MEURTRIERS
NAZIS DANS LES CAMPS
DE CONCENTRATION
EN ALLEMAGNE
1944-1945
QUE LEUR AME REPOSE EN PAIX.
Translation:
In Greek:
ΕΙΣ ΜΝΗΜΗΝ ΤΩΝ ΕΚΤΟΠΙΣΘΕΝΤΩΝ
ΙΣΡΑΗΛΙΤΩΝ ΡΟΔΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΚΩ
ΘΑΝΑΤΩΘΕΝΤΩΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΑ ΣΤΡΑΤΟΠΕΔΑ
ΣΥΓΚΕΝΤΡΩΣΕΩΣ ΓΕΡΜΑΝΙΑΣΣ
1944-1945
ΕΙΗ Η ΜΝΗΜΗ ΑΥΤΩΝ ΑΙΩΝΙΑ
Translation:
Commissioned by
Jewish communities of Rhodes and Kos
5 image(s)
Depth of platform, 256 cm
Height of aedicula from platform, 350 cm
Width of aedicula, 207 cm
Height of horizontal “tomb” with names, 38 cm,
Width of horizontal “tomb,” 130 cm
In 1938, the same year as the enactment by the Italian fascist rulers of the anti-semitic laws in Rhodes, the Italian governor forced the Jewish cemetery to be moved from its location just outside the old city wall of the Jewish quarter to its current location 1 mile south. Italy's new ruler of Rhodes, the early and prominent Fascist leader Cesare Maria del Vecchi, ordered the old Jewish cemetery expropriated for a park, and that the island’s Jews would need to exhume all the remains and save what gravestones they wanted. He also demanded that some grave stones be donated as building material for his palace as an act of intentional humiliation. At the time the results were chaotic and catastrophic. Jews came from abroad to move family graves, but many older graves had no known family members to rescue them. These older remains and stones were moved en masse without differentiation to the new cemetery site allocated for the community. New gravesites were allocated. Only some stones and bones could be reunited.
Two years after the old Rhodes cemetery was destroyed, Italy and Greece went to war. Half of Rhodes' Jews fled to Turkey and many to Africa where there were already Rhodian Jewish communities. No one could imagine that the rest of the community would be deported to their deaths in July 1944. After the Second World War and the Greek Civil War that followed, some Rhodian Jews returned to their devastated community. Only one synagogue survived. Work at organizing the new cemetery continued – but slowly. In the spring of 1949, a memorial monument that served as a surrogate tomb for the departed was dedicated. For twenty years – until a plaque was installed by the entrance to the synagogue in 1969 - this was the only Holocaust memorial on Rhodes.
Hasson, Aron, A Guidebook to the Jewish Quarter of Rhodes (Los Angeles, CA: Rhodes Jewish Historical Foundation, 2012)