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PEORIA HOLOCAUST
MEMORIAL
It stands in an unexpected place: in the walkway of a
busy and up-to-date shopping center. Shoe shops, sporting goods stores and
eateries – and the throngs of people who keep them busy – surround the
silent marker. There, in the midst of contemporary materialism, the Peoria
(Illinois) Holocaust Memorial stands as a stark reminder of life, death
and history.
The unique and creative design of that silent
remembrance is thought-provoking; a cause for reflection. It consists of
two parts. The first area contains eighteen "Star of David"
shaped glass columns of varying heights arranged in rows. The second part
has five triangular glass columns, arranged in a circle. Each of the
twenty-three columns is filled with buttons of varying shapes, sizes and
colors.
A plaque near-by explains the significance of the design
of the memorial. In the first part, the eighteen columns are filled with
six million buttons, one for each of the six million Jews murdered in the
holocaust by the Nazi regime. Buttons were chosen as symbols for several
reasons. Like people, each button is unique and useful in holding things
together in community. Buttons come in all colors, shapes and styles but
many are round, symbolizing the "cycle of life." Buttons help
hold clothing closed, protecting the wearer and often survive even after
the clothing has rotted away.
The Hebrew word for eighteen, "chai," also
signifies life. Those first eighteen columns are arranged in two rows,
remembering the two choices that greeted Jews upon arriving in a
concentration camp. If they were directed to the right, they were allowed
to live. If consigned to the line on the left, they were destined to die.
The second five triangular columns are filled with five
million buttons representing the five million "enemies of the [Nazi]
regime" who were also murdered in the concentration camps. The
triangular shape remembers the variously colored triangular markings that
"enemies of the Nazi regime" were forced to wear. These
"enemies" included Catholics, social activists, political
dissenters, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, handicapped
persons, prophetic religious figures, trade unionists, the handicapped,
Polish and Serbian citizens and protestors from other occupied countries.
The memorial is beautiful, quiet and peaceful. Standing
among those columns, however, one can feel the piercing gaze of a cloud of
witnesses eleven million strong. Their silent but powerful voices ring out
loudly: "Never again!" The echo of those voices sounds in the
soul long after the visit!
More information about this memorial can be found at www.peoriaholocaustmemorial.org.
30 May 2009 - mshr
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