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BOSTON--In a solemn ceremony Sunday morning in front of hundreds of survivors, the city of Boston dedicated a memorial to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
The New England Holocaust Memorial, located near City Hall and along the historic Freedom Trail, features six luminous glass towers, etched with numbers from 0000001 to 6000000--one number for every Jewish life lost.
Author Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was the keynote speaker at the dedication ceremony, which also featured remarks from Massachusetts Governor William F. Weld '66, Boston Mayor Thomas A. Menino and an ecumenical collection of local religious leaders.
"Today, we say to the world, that Boston does not forget the tragedy of the Holocaust," Menino told the crowd of approximately 8,000 gathered for the mid-morning service at City Hall Plaza.
"Here we pray with one voice, one heart, with united resolve. Never again," said Bernard Cardinal Law.
The six towers, each 54 feet high, are a permanent addition to the plaza. Each tower's floor is covered by a grate and at night, black rocks below the grates are illuminated and steam is emitted, giving passers-by the illusion of smoldering embers.
The towers, illuminated at night, are etched with quotations from survivors, including author Primo Levi, at eye-level, and are open to the sky.
"When you look down, you get a sense of the death and destruction of the Holocaust, your eye then leads to the quotes, and then you look up to the heavens, where hope still exists for all," a guide at the Memorial said Sunday.
The designer, San Francisco architect Stanley Saitowitz used the symbolic number six throughout the Memorial to evoke the six million Jews killed, the six main Nazi death camps--Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinks, Majdanek, Sobibor, Chelnino and Belzes the six pointed star of David and the seven-branched Menorah, one branch missing in remembrance of the million who died.
"[The Mentorial] evokes the watch towers [at the camps]," said Wiesel, whose haunting book Night recalls his experience in Nuchwitz.
"They also evoke those who watched over the watch towers. The evoke an era of incommensurate darkness, an era in history when civilization lost its humanity, and humanity lost its soul," he added.
Wiesel sharply criticized those who did nothing to stop the Holocaust, including the American government, who he pointed out could have made the decision to Lomb the rail tracks leading to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
"The world stood there and remained silent, let us remember that. The war against the Jews...went on and on, and why wasn't it stopped?" asked. "Why weren't the railways to Birkenau bombed? It was so simple."
Wiesel remembered the Jews who "simply vanished from human memory" in the Holocaust, especially the 1.5 million children who perished in the death camps.
"One and a half million children. One and a half million children. I will repeat those words for the rest of my life Wiesel and other speakers at the ceremony told "Whenever injustice prevails, we must act immediately," Wised said. "If we had reacted immediately in the former And Wiesel added, "No one should ever speak out Weld, in warning that the "Holocaust has taught "[Last week's] Million Man March The dedication ceremony was "A lot, of the memories of what went It's very compelling in a way, became it is
Wiesel and other speakers at the ceremony told "Whenever injustice prevails, we must act immediately," Wised said. "If we had reacted immediately in the former And Wiesel added, "No one should ever speak out Weld, in warning that the "Holocaust has taught "[Last week's] Million Man March The dedication ceremony was "A lot, of the memories of what went It's very compelling in a way, became it is
"Whenever injustice prevails, we must act immediately," Wised said. "If we had reacted immediately in the former And Wiesel added, "No one should ever speak out Weld, in warning that the "Holocaust has taught "[Last week's] Million Man March The dedication ceremony was "A lot, of the memories of what went It's very compelling in a way, became it is
And Wiesel added, "No one should ever speak out Weld, in warning that the "Holocaust has taught "[Last week's] Million Man March The dedication ceremony was "A lot, of the memories of what went It's very compelling in a way, became it is
Weld, in warning that the "Holocaust has taught "[Last week's] Million Man March The dedication ceremony was "A lot, of the memories of what went It's very compelling in a way, became it is
"[Last week's] Million Man March The dedication ceremony was "A lot, of the memories of what went It's very compelling in a way, became it is
The dedication ceremony was "A lot, of the memories of what went It's very compelling in a way, became it is
"A lot, of the memories of what went It's very compelling in a way, became it is
It's very compelling in a way, became it is
It's very compelling in a way, became it is
It's very compelling in a way, became it is
It's very compelling in a way, became it is
It's very compelling in a way, became it is
It's very compelling in a way, became it is
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