PRAGUE—European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Moshe Kantor on Monday unveiled a unique monument in memory of those incarcerated and murdered in the Terezin concentration camp and the six million victims of the Holocaust.
The monument was unveiled ‘’as an eternal memorial on behalf of the Jewish communities of Europe,’’ EJC said.
“This monument symbolises the Jewish experience throughout the ages. A history of violent persecutions, but also one of resilience and responsibility,” Kantor declared. “The nature of the stone is meant to capture the eternity of grief, and its immensity the magnitude of the burden of the Jewish people.”
The sculpture, created by prominent Czech artist Aleš Veselý is a construction that symbolises the Jewish experience throughout the ages: A history of violent persecutions, but also one of resilience and responsibility.
“It is memory that has allowed us, the Jewish People, to last through thousands of years of history, despite ongoing persecutions,” Kantor said.
Also speaking at the event were Jan Roubínek, Director of the Terezin Memorial, Daniel Meron, Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Czech Republic, Bodo Ramelow, Minister-President of Thuringia (Thüringen), Petr Papoušek, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic and Holocaust survivor Doris Grozdanovičová. Officials from Czech Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs, diplomats, leaders and prominent members of the Czech Jewish Community as well as the executive members of EJC and World Jewish Congress (WJC).
Terezin was a concentration camp 30 miles north of Prague in the Czech Republic during WWII. It originally served as a holiday resort for Czech nobility and by 1940, the Gestapo turned it into a Jewish ghetto and concentration camp. Terezin held primarily Jews from Czechoslovakia and tens of thousands of Jews deported from Germany and Austria, as well as hundreds from the Netherlands and Denmark. More than 150,000 Jews were sent to Terezin, including 15,000 children, before being sent by rail transports to their deaths at Treblinka and Auschwitz extermination camps, as well as to smaller camps elsewhere. Less than 150 children survived.