New Haven Holocaust Memorial

Picture this, you’re walking towards Elm City Records on a cool spring afternoon, and on your way there you are at the stop sign on West Park Avenue ready to turn right onto Whalley Avenue. You look over into Edgewood Park and see an ominous Black structure with a concrete barrier surrounding it within. What is it? A solemn reminder of one of the most tragic and horrific events to occur within the last one hundred years and quite possibly all of history. The New Haven Holocaust Memorial is dedicated to the six million Jews that were brutally murdered as part of the Nazi's Final Solution during World War Two. It is for us to remember and grieve this loss. This memorial is thus a constant reminder of the tragedy that happened in hopes that something similar never again occurs.

As you approach the memorial you notice that the monument features a large sculpture with a Star of David base. Six curved bars wrapped in barbed wire symbolize Nazi concentration camps, and small trees in the monument’s base honor the six million Jewish Holocaust victims. A plaque on the northeast side of the monument’s base reads, “We remember the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War II 1939-1945 (5699-5705). Dedicated by the city of New Haven [and the] New Haven Jewish Federation.”

 A nearby plaque in Hebrew bears what we assume to be a similar dedication. Plaques on the rear wall of the plaza bear dedications to all of the innocent Holocaust victims as well as the Gentiles who helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust.

Buried at the center of New Haven’s Holocaust Memorial is a shoebox of ashes collected from Auschwitz Birkenau. The shoebox is surrounded by a concrete Star of David that forms the base of the memorial. Surrounding the center are curved, metal beams with symbolic barbed wire that represents Jewish imprisonment. Six center yew trees memorialize the six million Jews who were murdered. Eighteen plaques, symbolizing the 18 different concentration camps, surround the memorial. Eighteen is an important number in Judaism because it is called “chai” which means both eighteen and life. That is why multiples of eighteen were involved in the creation of the memorial. Two bushes, whose planters are adorned with plaques, sit close to the memorial to honor the rescuers and others who died at the hands of the Nazis. 6,000 cobblestones invoke the streets of ghettos into which the Nazis corralled the Jews. The Evergreen groves are reminiscent of the forests where Jewish resisters hid from the Nazis.

The story of the memorial starts in 1967 when about 70 different families of Jews who survived the Holocaust and re-established in communities such as New Haven met and decided to construct a memorial for the loved ones they lost. Each week, each family donated $1 to purchase materials for the memorial. In 1977, then-Mayor Frank Logue appointed a committee, which included those families, to erect a memorial to the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. 

 It was the first time a municipality, in cooperation with the local Jewish Federation, erected a monument on city land in memory of the six million Jews. The committee included a diverse cross-section of the community, including Christian and Jewish leaders, clergymen, business and civic leaders as well as Holocaust survivors.

Many different park areas in the city were considered until they settled on Edgewood Park. The Federation worked with a landscaper named Marvin Cohen, the owner of Cheshire Nursery. Cohen then consulted with his friend, a young, gifted architect, Augustus “Gus” Joseph Franzoni, on an appropriate marker for the site.

Franzoni poured out his anger and sorrow into an architectural rendering of a simple, yet stark, memorial that captured the essence of the most catastrophic event in Jewish history. At the Mayor’s first committee meeting, Franzoni’s stunning design was approved immediately without any changes.

The memorial was formally dedicated in ceremonies on Oct. 30, 1977, with more than 1,000 people attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The event received state-wide media coverage and continues to have annual Holocaust Remembrance events. According to Ira Kleinfeld, professor emeritus of engineering and retired associate provost, "The event has found resonance because it affords a unique opportunity for our students to get clear lessons on the roots of genocide and the importance of tolerance and understanding as bedrocks for a peaceful society." 

Pelland, Dave. “Holocaust Memorial, New Haven.” CT Monumentsnet, 14 Mar. 2010, http://ctmonuments.net/2010/03/holocaust-memorial-new-haven/.

“This Year Marks 40th Anniversary of Holocaust Memorial: Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven.” This Year Marks 40th Anniversary of Holocaust Memorial | Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, https://jewishnewhaven.org/press-releases/this-year-marks-40th-anniversary-of-holocaust-memorial. 

“Kever Avot: Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven.” Kever Avot | Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, https://jewishnewhaven.org/press-releases/kever-avot.