National Holocaust Monument
Titled: Landscape of Loss, Memory and Survival
Inaugurated: September 2017 in Ottawa, ON
NATIONAL HOLOCAUST MONUMENT
The National Holocaust Monument commemorates the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust, and the millions of other victims of Nazi Germany and its collaborators. It also stands as a tribute to the courage and resilience of the survivors who were able to make their way to Canada following one of the darkest chapters in human history. The monument recognizes the immense contributions these survivors have made to Canada and serves as a reminder that we must be vigilant in standing guard against antisemitism, hatred and intolerance.
In October 2014, Edward Burtynsky embarked on a photographic journey that took him 4,000 kilometres across Eastern Europe to capture current landscapes of “scarred” sites of the Holocaust. This journey resulted in over 250 photographic images.
Burtynsky, in collaboration with a team assembled by Lord Cultural Resources that included Gail Lord, architect Daniel Libeskind, Holocaust scholar Doris Bergen, and landscape architect Claude Cormier, selected six photographs to comprise large-scale imagery for the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, Canada.
To provide a more complete context for this imagery, the Chai book was created. You can learn more about the book and purchase a copy here.
Read the team’s design intent here.