New Haven honors victims of the Holocaust with a monument in the city’s Edgewood Park.
The monument, at the corner of Whalley Avenue and West Park Avenue, was the country’s first Holocaust Memorial built on public land when it was dedicated in 1977.
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.
The memorial, designed by architect Augustus J. Franzoni, stands in the center of a grassy plaza. The exterior wall features a number of granite plaques bearing the names of local families. A box containing dirt and ashes from Auschwitz was interred at the site during groundbreaking ceremonies.
The monument is the site of an annual Holocaust commemoration.
Source: Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven
