January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945, is marked in many countries as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is an occasion for commemorative ceremonies, educational programs, and other initiatives. Monuments and memorials are also dedicated or form centerpieces for commemorative events.
As in past years, we are marking the occasion with a photo essay of Holocaust memorials in Europe — this year, like last year, again emphasizing memorials that place attention on the names of the victims or otherwise personalize the Holocaust by bringing home the fact that each of the millions who died was an individual: they name names and sometimes provide other information.
(We have written more extensively about some of these memorials and provide links to the articles.)
May their souls be bound up in the bond of life — may their memory be a blessing, and an inspiration not just to remember, but to learn!
Some of the memorials consist of long lists of names….
Personalized memorials include the more than 70,000 “stumbling stone” or “stolpersteine” commemorative cobblestones around Europe placed by the German artist Gunter Demnig as a memorial art project in front of the houses of people who were deported. More and more continue to be added.
The Holocaust Memorial in the village of Černovice, CZ, consists of polished stones bearing the names and other information about the deportees, set to line the lane leading to the Jewish cemetery.
In the former synagogue in Lostice, CZ, now an education and culture center, memorial exhibits about individual victims have been mounted in the book-cupboards in the pews.
