Earlier in 2020, I reported on the demolishing, desecration of the Holocaust Memorial in Stockholm*. Today's story is about similar actions in New York. The Monument in Stockholm was erected thanks to the Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association, SHMA while Monument in New York by Nathan Rapoport was created thanks to the couple Anya and Leon Jolson. Anya and Leon, both Holocaust survivors from Warszawa Ghetto are known for several similar creations in numerous countries, among others in Poland and in Israel. In Israel, thanks to their generosity there is at Yad Vashem Museum a replica of the Monument of Ghetto Fighters in Warszawa. The Monument in Warszawa was unveiled on April 19, 1948 (the fifth anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising). It was the first monument after the war to pay tribute to both Jewish resistance and annihilation.
Now, the memorial is ruined. The middle part with an important description
So actually, also what was left after the original memorial, two figural bronze reliefs that moved to the front of office windows without any background or description are difficult to see. Reliefs are no longer free but fastened to heavy vertical and horizontal iron bars that further deteriorate the reliefs. Korczak and the Children bronze relief was meant to show "free children with their educator". Now they are imprisoned by the heavy iron bars.
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The central panel contained an inscription cut into the stones:
TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF THE MILLION JEWISH CHILDREN WHO PERISHED IN THE HOLOCAUST
The upper panel included a bronze relief sculpture of three Israelis—a young Halutz, a soldier, and an older man, who carry back to Israel the Menorah originally in the Temple of Jerusalem and removed and taken by Titus and the Romans during the destruction of Jerusalem. Above the figures, who march from right to left, are two winged figures blowing trumpets. The composition is to be seen in opposition to the famous relief from the Arch of Titus in Rome, Menorah (and Jews) returning home. Between the upper panel and the dedication, there appears in Hebrew the word זכור ("Remember!") —as a reminder to all who view the building that the catastrophic events depicted on these sculptures are not to be forgotten.“Rapoport was hard at work on the finishing touches, the casting in bronze, of his latest project, for the entrance of the new school of the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City. Rapoport immediately saw the school as the perfect place for a memorial to Janusz Korczek. Luckily, Dr. Judah Nadich, the rabbi of the congregation, did not need any convincing to dedicate the school to this martyr and his schoolchildren, and to the million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust.
"What I have done," Rapoport says, pointing to a sketch of the memorial, "is to symbolize the martyrdom and redemption. You see the menorah coming back to Jerusalem from the Arch of Titus, which was put up in Rome to commemorate the defeat of the Jews and whose inscription says that Israel would not rise again. It is Titus' Rome that is in ruins, and it is Israel that has survived and is building."
Three people are carrying the menorah back to Jerusalem — a sabra (a native-born Israeli), the Israel Underground which liberated the country from the British, and the Zva Hagana Yisrael, or Zahal, the Israeli Army of Defense (now IDF). And the Angels of God proclaim the victory, "I brought back the menorah which is the symbol of redemption."”
There are three important aspects of violation due to the dismantling, separation, and partial relocation of the monument's vital components:
1. Offensive alteration of the artwork itself with respect to the triptych's structure, composition, and placement of all three vital components in a niche with two bronze reliefs and the text part in between. The disassembly and separation of the monument's parts are a violation and unacceptable alteration of the work and its structure with the intended vertical placement in a niche. Furthermore, the work's composition has been violated by separating and repositioning two reliefs and removing totally the third, the important text part "TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF THE MILLION JEWISH CHILDREN WHO PERISHED IN THE HOLOCAUST " that was carved out of 16 stone blocks in the middle niche. The fate of the 16 stone blocks is unknown. The work's content and message have been honored only in the original composition, the placement in a niche, the shape and size of the niche, and the interrelationship between the three constituent elements had decisive importance for the monument's content and message.
2. Infringement of Nathan Rapoport as a sculptor with exclusive copyright to his artwork with its unique and indivisible components.
3. Violation of donor Leon Jolson by breach of the donation condition, i.e. the purpose of placing the monument and exposing it in the purpose-built and intended niche above the entrance. The building and the monument were built simultaneously.
Barbara Blumenthal - TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF THE MILLION JEWISH CHILDREN WHO PERISHED IN THE HOLOCAUST
An international committee should be built to process the question of the future, reasonable placement. Such an international committee should include representatives from organizations like Ghetto Fighters and Yad Vashem in Israel, Jewish Heritage Museum in New York, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, and Warsaw Ghetto Museum in Poland. All this should be done TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF THE MILLION JEWISH CHILDREN WHO PERISHED IN THE HOLOCAUST as it was stated on the synagogue on Madison Street. Now gone!
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| The demolishing of the Holocaust Monument "6 stones - 6 million" by Jewish Congregation in Stockholm took place exactly on the 75 anniversary of the first arrival of UNRRA White Boats to Stockholm with the Holocaust survivors from Bergen-Belsen. |
It is not known what internal motives of the Jewish Congregation in Stockholm could be more important than the memory of Six Million Holocaust Victims.
The demolishing of the Holocaust Monument "6 stones - 6 million" by the Jewish Congregation in Stockholm took place exactly on the 75 anniversary of the first arrival of UNRRA White Boats to Stockholm with the Holocaust survivors from Bergen-Belsen. Many of them died upon arrival and were buried at Northern Cemetry. Their gravestones together with "6 stones - 6 million" stones with the names of the 6 death camps were actually the entire monument. So Auschwitz stone, Treblinka stone, Chelmno stone, etc. were removed and hidden by the Jewish Congregation. The Death camp granite stones (200 kg each) were placed on specially prepared concrete constructions looking exactly the same way as those on the photo in front of the Great Synagogue.
Both desecration actions are performed by religious Jews that belong to local Jewish congregations.
** Actually, 1 500 000 Jewish children perished in the Holocaust.



























