A new memorial commemorating Jewish and Roma victims of the Holocaust has been inaugurated in Brno, the Czech Republic’s second largest city.
Dedicated earlier this month, the monument, designed by the painter Daniel Václavík, is in the shape of a cube of black granite with water streaming down its sides. The design was chosen from an open competition two years ago that drew more than 50 entries.
According to the CTK news agency:
The edges of the cube are 3.14 meters long, a rounded-off approximation of the infinite number pi. “The endless progression of water evokes the constant repetition of human suffering throughout history,” Václavík explains.
The water flows down the cube as a symbol of cleansing and forgiveness. It then settles in a small pool of black granite.
The text section of the memorial is inscribed at the bottom of the pool in Czech, Hebrew and Romani and includes Jewish and Romani symbols. It is supposed to be a reflection on the epoch of Hitler’s Germany, the ideology of which considered Jews and Roma “inferior races” to be destroyed, and millions of people perished in concentration camps during WWII because of this ideology.