The HolocaustMemorial Park is a public Holocaust memorial park located at the water's edge between Emmons Avenue and Shore Boulevard in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn. The adjacent communities of Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, and Brighton Beach were settled after World War II by a large Jewish population, many of whom were immigrants and survivors of the atrocities of the Nazi regime. This Memorial Park is the only public Holocaust memorial park in New York City. It is a New York City-owned park maintained by the Parks Department. The Brooklyn-based non-profit organization “The Holocaust Memorial Committee” has control over the park's markers.
History
The Park was first designated as a Holocaust Memorial Park in 1985 by then-Mayor Edward I. Koch. Originally consisted of a grove of established London plane trees and a seating area. After a lengthy planning process led by a local non-profit organization, The Holocaust Memorial Committee, Brooklyn Borough PresidentHoward Golden allocated $933,000 toward the construction of a permanent memorial designed and built by the City. Construction of the permanent memorial began in 1994 and was dedicated on June 22, 1997, by then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani who was joined by Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and a Holocaust survivor, and other officials.
Design features
The memorial designed Landscape architect George Vellonakis consists of a truncated 14 1/2-foot tower sculpture of granite, exposed steel, and a bronze “Eternal Flame” on top. The word “Remember encircles the top of the tower. The tower stands on three circular tiers of granite, which are engraved with the names of those countries whose people were persecuted during the Holocaust. A twenty-one-foot, long granite slab extending towards Sheepshead Bay is inscribed with a brief history of the Holocaust. At the end of the slab is inscribed: The tower is flanked on both sides with two crushed gravel surface gardens of 234 granite markers, inscribed with names, places, and historical events related to the Holocaust. The shapes of the markers are intended to evoke tombstones and their broken edges to represent the shattered lives of Holocaust survivors. Each is different in form and size, to recall the diversity of those persecuted by the Nazis. Members of the public can have the names of friends or family members lost during the Holocaust inscribed on one of the adjacent historical markers for $360 donation to the Holocaust Memorial Committee. Donors are asked to provide the victim's name and a brief history of his or her Holocaust experience. The committee then meets to verify the authenticity of the proposed inscription. Thousands of names have already been inscribed on the granite markers. Among the granite markers are markers for places like Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Belzec, Buchenwald, Babi Yar, Mauthausen, Dachau concentration camp, Treblinka, Sobibor, Theresienstadt, Majdanek and more. For events and facts like the Wannsee Conference, the Death marches, the Nuremberg Laws, the Evian Conference, Kristallnacht, the Warsaw Uprising and more. People like Raoul Wallenberg, Anne Frank, Michael Ber Weissmandl, Mordechai Gebirtig and more. Poems and messages by famous people like Abraham Sutzkever, Elie Wiesel, Simon Wiesenthal, Dwight D. Eisenhower the Partisan Anthem, First they came... and more. As well as for numerous Jewish prewar communities.
Annual gathering
Since the dedicated Annual gatherings take place at the memorial on occasions throughout the year for remembering, memorial programs, and to honor leaders, educators, and heroic figures. Such as on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Vandalism
The Memorial Park has been vandalized several times over the years. One such incident was in 2012 when Vulgar language graffiti was sprayed on the Memorial. Another incident took place in 2019 when the Memorial Park was again vandalized with graffiti.
