Artwork Details
- Title
- Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs
- Artist
- Nathan Rapoport (1911 – 1987)
- Year
- 1964
- Medium
- Bronze, on black granite base
- Dimensions
- Height 18′, width 6', depth 6' (base height 4'4 1/2″, width 7'6", depth 7')
Artwork Description
In the flames of a burning bush, an anguished or dying mother reclines, and above her a wailing child throws out its arms. A man raises his hands in prayer, while another pair of hands holds the Torah scrolls. Near the top, fists clutch daggers, symbols of resistance. At the apex the flames become the blazing candles of a menorah.
This impassioned memorial to the victims of the Holocaust was commissioned by the Association of Jewish New Americans, a group of several hundred families, many of whom had fled Europe in the wake of Hitler’s destruction. The group donated the monument to the city in 1964, in conjunction with the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia.
The monument was dedicated at a solemn ceremony on April 26, 1964. Although its theme is tragic and terrifying, the work conveys a sense of spiritual redemption, as indicated by the symbol of the burning bush through which God appears to Moses in Exodus 3:2: “behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.”
Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
Gift of the Association of Jewish New Americans to the City of Philadelphia
Owned by the City of Philadelphia
Artwork Media
Museum Without Walls
Voices:
EDWARD “EDDIE” GASTFRIEND is a Holocaust survivor and chaired the monument committee.
NINA WOLMARK is sculptor Nathan Rapoport’s daughter who lives in Normandy, France.
JAMES E. YOUNG is the author of At Memory’s Edge: After-images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art.
Producer: Amanda Aronczyk