Construction on the Memorial Monument on the site of the Jewish cemetery in Brest (Brest-Litovsk) is nearing completion, and the monument, made up of hundreds of fragments of gravestones, is due to be inaugurated July 28.
Designed by the American artist Brad J. Goldberg, the monument is an example of landscape art, and will entail a broken circle of wall and walkway embracing a forest of around 600 re-erected matzevot or fragments. It will be built on land that was part of the destroyed cemetery.
The British NGO the Together Plan, dedicated to Jewish community development in Belarus, is coordinating the project in collaboration with its partner organisation in the USA, Jewish Tapestry Project, the Religious Jewish Union of Belarus, and the international charitable organization Dialog in Belarus.
The salvaged gravestone remnants — all that remains of Brest’s once-vast Jewish cemetery — were removed from storage and returned to the cemetery on April 24. (Click here to read about this and watch a video.)
Around 26,000 Jews lived in Brest before the Holocaust. The Jewish cemetery was demolished by the Nazis in 1941-42 and then in the decades after World War II the Soviet authorities converted the site into the Lokomotiv stadium and playing field.
Over the past month the Together Plan says, “the site has been transformed.”
The central mound where the gravestones will stand has been carefully shaped. Sandstone pathways within embrace walls (each one being 85 metres long) have been laid, and the approach paths from surrounding roads are now complete. The smallest gravestone fragments are now being laid as mosaics along the tops of the walls, and will be permanently fixed in place. In June, the larger stones will be installed on the central mound, bringing the heart of the memorial to life.
It said the planned July 28 inauguration date “marks both the liberation of Brest from Nazi occupation in 1944 and the grim moment under Soviet rule when the decision was made to build a sports stadium over the Jewish cemetery grounds.”
Read the latest on the Together Plan web site
Click here to see our October 2023 post about the memorial project
Click here to access the Together Plan web site and find out more