Obj. ID: 58395  National Cemetery in front of the Small Fortress in Terezín, Czech Republic

Terezín was designated as a memorial site in 1947, but it initially comprised only the Small Fortress and the National Cemetery. 

For many decades, "the National Cemetery was the main official site of memory in Terezín, beginning with the National Funeral, a solemn memorial service held on September 16, 1945. During the course of the event, the heroism and sacrifices of the Czech nation were highlighted." [Holý, 2026, p. 42]

"In the post-war decade, the National Cemetery buried the remains of 10,000 victims: only a minority from the Small Fortress, many more from the ghetto or from the underground factory not far from Litoměřice and from the death marches. However, official reports offered inflated figures, most often 26,000 ‘fallen fighters against fascism’.

In 1946, the Jewish community placed a large Star of David in the cemetery. "In the 1950s, the ‘religious symbols’ were removed and replaced by secular tombstones, leaving only a large cross with a crown of thorns." [Holý, 2026, p. 49]

The Magen David made of railway tracks was put back in 1995. [Holý, 2026, p. 57]

"The 1995 Magen David at the National Cemetery was executed in a technically simpler version than the artist intended. He had originally floated the idea of a double sixpointed star with built-in gas burners that would create shimmering hot air in the space between – an incorporeal work symbolizing the divine presence, the shekhinah.13 With this simple gesture, Veselý would achieve an extraordinary effect. In addition, he would create an unconventional Holocaust memorial, in which the side effect of the gas in the context of a place with many controversial multiple meanings, to say the least, would be used as a metaphor expressing the spiritual dimension. However, it appears that due to a lack of funding and the technical difficulties involved, in the end a plainer version of a simple six-pointed star was chosen. This was created from the old railway tracks on which the Jews had been transported to the concentration camps. Veselý proposed casting them in bronze, but for financial reasons this did not happen and the original rails were merely bronze plated. Veselý also had to keep a tight rein on volume. In contrast to the 1960s design, in which he placed the twenty-seven metre high sculpture Memento in the National Cemetery, the star is not quite six metres in height. Its layout responded to the proportions of the nearby wooden cross." [Čejková, 2026, p. 97]