This Memorial came about from the efforts of many people. The founder Stephan Ross /Szmulek Rozental, a Holocaust survivor, was imprisoned by the Nazis and lost his parents, five sisters and one brother. Ross survived ten concentration camps, a broken back, being hung by noose,...
Read MoreThis Memorial came about from the efforts of many people. The founder Stephan Ross /Szmulek Rozental, a Holocaust survivor, was imprisoned by the Nazis and lost his parents, five sisters and one brother. Ross survived ten concentration camps, a broken back, being hung by noose, tuberculosis and starvation between 1940 and 1945. He and his brother Harry were freed from Dachau by American forces. At age sixteen, he came to America in 1948. He would overcome illiteracy and achieve three college degrees. He would work for the city of Boston for forty years.
Wanting a memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust and to those who liberated the camps, Ross shared his idea with WW2 veteran William Carmen and Israel Arbeiter, president of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston. Both Boston mayors Raymond Flynn and Thomas Menino came onboard with many others.
It was dedicated on October 22nd, 1995. Construction began on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. Stanley Saitowitz was the architect of the memorial.
Six 54' glass towers with 24 glass panels. Twenty-two of the glass panels, totalling 132, are inscribed with both with series of seven numbers representing the tattooed numbers placed on the people who went to the concentration camps and a quote of a survivor. There are 17,280 unique and 2,280,960 random numbers. The light causes the shadows from the numbers to cover you. Six towers were built to represent the six million Jews who perished, the years 1939-1945 of the "Final Solution"and the six Polish concentration camps, CHELMNO. TREBLINKA. MAJDANEK. SOBIBOR. AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU. BELZEC.
Steam is emitted from black concrete pits with 6' square grates with lights underneath that you can walk across. Called chambers by Saitowitz, the glass columns are supposed to represent the chimneys at the concentration camps.
Each entryway has a specific meaning. One has the outline of events that leads to the Wannsee Conference. The other has a quote from Pastor Martin Niemoller. Black granite ramps with the word "REMEMBER" in English and Hebrew. The history of the rise of the Nazi party and the Holocaust is briefly outlined along the black granite path between each tower. One entryway you can leave a white stone 🪨 of remembrance. Someone left a lei of flowers.
Other victims are told of. Homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Romani/Gypsies, political dissidents and the physically and mentally disabled also perished. "Holocaust" and the Hebrew counterpart "Shoah" are engraved.
I am not certain about about the stone garden. I picture the countless people in the concentration camps or the countless people who just watched and did nothing.
The memorial has been the victim of vandalism and protest🪧. When I visited one woman spat on the ground. I also picked up litter that was left there.
Thanks to nehm.org, Wikipedia and Boston Discovery Guide for information ℹ️ about the memorial.
I hope to visit in the evening and I encourage others to visit as well. There are virtual tours online but visiting it in person was powerful.
Wheelchair accessible entrance 
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