(JHE) — 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 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, in this way keep alive the memory of those who were murdered — and the living Jewish worlds, stretching back generations, that were destroyed.
Some of the memorials consist of long lists of names….Some personalise the dead in other ways. These 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.
We have posted a few of these images in the past, but it is always important to remember.
You can also watch the video we made last year:
(We want to note, also, the work of the Polish project “People, Not Numbers,” spearheaded by the Polish Olympic athlete Dariusz Popiela, which focuses on erected memorials in Poland that list names.)
May the souls of all the dead be bound up in the bond of life — may their memory be a blessing, and an inspiration not just to remember, but to learn!
