The Lonely Path to Hell is Depicted in Miami Beach, Florida
Written: Jul 11 '04 (Updated Sep 15 '04)
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Pros: I am at a loss for words! The arm! sculptures more amazing than imaginable.
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: This is a must see. Atheist, Jew, Christian, Buddhist, etc. etc. don't miss this one. Go- if only to see the sculptures and not the history.
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| jo.com's Full Review: The Holocaust Memorial Miami |
his review is a bit difficult because much of the information can be found online. In spite of that I will tell you what you will see if you go to The Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach, Florida intertwined with my impressions. During our December/January 2004 trip to Florida this Memorial was one of the last of our destinations. I am attempting to visit every museum and memorial dedicated to the Holocaust and to document my visit.
We went during the week. You will be able to park on the street at one of the many meters. A few quarters is all you will need. As amazing as this Memorial is, you won’t spend hours here as we did in museums.
It is located at 1933-1945 Meridian Avenue. Their phone number is 305-538-1663. There is no charge to view the memorial although donations are gladly accepted. We parked and walked a minute or two, passed a restroom for which you can get a key from the “gatekeeper” who will sell you a brochure for $1.00 or take a donation and answer questions. Guided tours are available upon request. You can visit from 9:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M.
Never, ever have I ever seen anything like what I immediately saw. It is called The Sculpture of Love and Anguish and will be number 6 on this tour (The first few are not in order because I am taking you the way we saw it not the way it is shown in the brochure or online.) My husband lived in Israel. His son was born there. Never had he seen anything that took his breath away like this sculpture as well as the others. The sculptor, Kenneth Treister was “entrusted with interpreting the Holocaust into a structure which would memorialize its victims, serve as a solace to its survivors and also inform with factual representations in pictures and words of this century’s greatest human crime."
Treister deserves an award if one is given to sculptors for this Memorial. Truly no matter what your religion, even if you have none and are only interested in sculpture and architecture this is a must see. As we approached we saw the sculpture (number 1) called The Beginning. It is of a mother and her two children who cling close to her. Treister was illustrating the first fearful signs of the coming of the Holocaust. The sculpture is framed with this quote by Anne Franke “that in spite of everything I still belive that people are really good at heart.”
The building material for the Memorial is actual Jerusalem stone. It is bright. Contrasting that is black granite which lines the walls. This is dark.
I was moved by the water in the 200-foot diameter reflecting pool containing huge lily pads. Both the sky and Love and Anguish are reflected in the pool. This area set against a backdrop of dense green palm forest is number 3. It is called A Garden of Meditation.
The Jerusalem stones mentioned above support a wooden arbor with white bougainvillea vines. We then saw black granite walls which we will see again at the end of the tour but on the other side. They form a semicircle. Coming in 3 panels talk about the history of the Holocaust, pictures of events and experiences and maps. I was certainly impressed with this but having been to other memorials and museums it is really the sculptures that are amazing. I am going to leave you with the website so you can see them first hand. Although I have pictures I could send you and you are reading a review to really get the full impact I urge you to look at the sculptures. This area is called The Arbor of History, (number 2). Professor Helen Fagin, the Memorial’s historian, wrote the introduction and captions.
As we continued walking we came across an Eternal Light. This is called The Dome of Contemplation (number 4). There is an inscription of the 23rd Psalm. Number 5 is called The Lonely Path. This is a stone tunnel illuminated by thin slats of sunlight. Can you imagine what it was like to walk through this listening to voices of Israeli children singling songs? One can’t help but notice the names of the concentrations camps on these narrowing walls.
What we entered into was amazing. You’ll see a large circular plaza paved with the same pink Jerusalem stone. This is all surrounded by a high solid wall lined with the shiny black granite. Here we saw number 6. This is the Sculpture of Love and Anguish. It is a 42-foot high bronze sculpture of a giant outstretched arm reaching up to the sky. You can see a number tattooed on the arm. Climbing the arm are bodies, naked, dead, dying....We are told that visitors see different things in this arm. Some see despair, some hope, some the last grasp of life and “for some it asks a question to G-d...”Why?” What did it say to me? To both my husband and me it cried of despair. I can see no hope, I can see no good out of anything related to the Holocaust. If you have read other reviews of museums and memorials you know I feel very strongly about this. I don’t ask G-d why. I accept the atrocity and tell the story to as many people as I can so it will never happen again.
All around and on the arm are what Treister calls “A Series of Vignettes.” These are bronze figures all of whom look tormented and are since his mission was to portray the Holocaust accurately. You’ll seee families trying to help each other, children comforting babies- all showing so well the emotions of terror and compassion of one doomed person helping another. These sculptures are so well done and so real looking that it is frightening and enormously sad to look at them.
Number 8 is called Sensing Both Love and Fear. These are free-standing bronze figures that surround the base of the arm. They are life size. Treister's intentions, which were successful, were to have me become part of the sculpture. Although I didn’t touch any, you can. I felt what I was intended to feel – love and fear- without having to touch these figures.
The Memorial Wall is number 9. We walked past black granite panels etched with the names of victims, which have been submitted by their families.
The Final Sculpture is number 10. We are almost at the end of my tour. Remember number 1- The Beginning? The same mom and her two children who were alive at the beginning of my tour are now dead. They lie together framed by another quote by Anne Frank “ideals, dreams, and cherished hopes rise within us only to meet the horrible truths and be shattered.”
In Treister’s last attempt to depict the Holocaust we see “Never Shall We Forget.” A child’s face peers out at me with these words “A child’s face what to expect, what to fear, what to hope for! Approximately one and a half million Jewish children perished from the hands of the Nazis. Many were burned alive in ravines...."
Jo’s Final Thoughts:
Before my final thoughts I’d like to share Treister’s with you. He writes, “The totality of the Holocaust can not be created in stone and bronze, but I had to try. The rich diversity of the European culture, now lost, cannot be expressed...but I had to try. The murder of one and half million children show joys turned to sorrow suddenly on September 1, 1939, when World War II broke out, cannot be sculpted..but I had to try. Six million moments of death cannot be understood...but we must all try.”
As I said I have stopped trying to understand because evil such as this is irrational and incomprehensible. I teach what happened not to understand why but to learn from history because only then can we not repeat it. I compare my feelings with Freudian philosophy. I can spend years in therapy figuring out what my mom did wrong or I can fix now what is wrong and move on. That is my philosophy of the Holocaust. I can’t understand how or why it happened, I can only attempt to fix the broken pieces so we can move on and prevent it from breaking again.
This Memorial, tucked away in the middle of Miami Beach, is amazingly powerful. The site of the arm alone makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Please go visit if you are in the area and make a donations for the Fund for Perpetual Care so we can preserve the memory of the 6 million Jewish Victims of the Holocaust.
Finally, is this appropriate for children? Absolutely. Unlike some displays, particularly at museums that in my opinion are not appropriate for children, this one is. This is an excellent teaching tool. Although there are some graphic pictures, you can walk by them quickly if you want to. You can’t avoid the crying babies clinging to the arm, but that is what I call a teachable moment. It isn’t a gruesome site compared to pictures of naked bodies lying in an open grave.
Feel free to leave me a comment or question.
The website is http://www.holocaustmmb.org/ If you visit the site, the singing you hear is in Hebrew.
Related reviews:
US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
Museum of Jewish Heritage
The New England Holocaust Memorial
The Rhode Island Holocaust Museum
Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg
The Holocaust Memorial in Miami, Florida
Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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