When I first saw this, it seemed like a jumbled, unintelligible mess. Upon closer inspection I could make out the various body parts of humans being consumed by a fire. Then it hit me this is representative of the Holocaust victims being burned in the ovens, both their physical bodies and their memories.
While chaperoning my students and marching in the Puerto Rican Pride Parade (Fall 2008), I stumbled on this memorial. Being the Holocaust is my own category, I could not wait to rush home and submit it but, alas, I was beaten. I dropped my camera in the rain while snapping photos and the last pictures I ever took from my trusty digital friend can be found here.
I found this to be a particular moving statue and I am glad this reminder is here so we will NEVER FORGET. To all those revisionists who insist this never happened....YOU LOSE!
I found two sources of documentation on this sculpture. The first was from the University of Minnesota's website for Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies. It reads:
Philadelphia Holocaust memorial, 17th and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA. erected in 1964. Architect is Nathan Rapoport, who also built the Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw, Poland, a similar monument at Yad VaShem in Jerusalem, and an American monument in Jersey City, NJ to the American Liberators of the Concentration camps. The image of the monument is the victims of the Holocaust in a vertical ring of fire. Details show aspects of the monument, which becomes very abstract in sun-light.
The second source of documentation comes from where else but the Smithsonian Inventory website. The following excerpts come from the Smithsonian inventory page for this sculpture. SOURCE
Inscription
"C. Natan(sic) Rapoport/1964 Fond. Tommasi & Vignali/Pietrasanta, Italy (Base, front side:) THE HOLOCAUST/1933-1945/NOW AND FOREVER ENSHRINED IN MEMORY ARE THE SIX MILLION/JEWISH MARTYRS WHO PERISHED IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS/GHETTOS AND GAS CHAMBERS/IN THEIR DEEPEST AGONY THEY CLUNG TO THE IMAGE OF HUMANITY,/AND THEIR ACTS OF RESISTANCE IN THE FORESTS AND GHETTOS/REDEEMED THE HONOR OF MAN./THERE SUFFERING AND HEROISM ARE FOREVER BRANDED UPON/OUR CONSCIENCE AND SHALL BE REMEMBERED/FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION. (Base, left side:) PRESENTED TO/THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA/BY/THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH/NEW AMERICANS/IN COOPERATION WITH/THE FEDERATION OF JEWISH AGENCIES OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA/APRIL 26, 1964. (Base, rear:) REMEMBER (Hebrew lettering)/DRANCY/FLOSSENBERG/GROSS-ROSEN/KLOOGA/LWON-JANOWSKA/MAJDANEK/MAUTHAUSEN/NEUENGAMME/AUSCHWITZ/BABI-YAR/BELZEC/BERGEN-BELSEN/BREENDONCK/BUCHENWALD/CHELMNO/DAUCHAU/PONARY/RAVENS-TREBLINKON/WESTERBORK (Base, right side:) (Hebrew lettering) 1933-1945 signed Founder's mark appears."
Description
"A vertical mass of bodies, flames, barbed wire, the torah, and daggers.
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Dimensions
Sculpture: approx. 216 x 72 x 72 in.; Base: approx. 60 x 90 x 84 in.
Remarks
"This piece was given to the City by the New Americans Association, a group of 400 families, many of whom fled Poland after World War II."