Camden County Holocaust Memorial - Cherry Hill, NJ - The Holocaust on Waymarking.com

"Dedicated on June 7, 1981 as the community memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, the Holocaust Memorial project was initiated by the B’nai B’rith Cherry Hill Lodges and brought to completion by a community wide committee. The memorial was designed by sculptor Harold Kimmelman." SOURCE

This memorial is located in Memorial Grove within Cooper River Park along the banks of Cooper River. It is managed by the Camden County Parks & Recreation Department. This impressive memorial is highlighted by a symbolically constructed eternal flame stretching toward the sky. The base of the memorial is a polygon of which each side has the name of a concentration camp inscribed within the marble stone. There are many other memorials here for the various wars our country has been involved. This website contains pictures of all the nearby memorials including this important one as well.

This monument was conceived by the Cherry Hill Lodges of B'nai B'rith and realized through a total community effort. Within my community of Cherry Hill, I have met scores of Holocaust survivors including a very close friend, Aunt Rachel and a Masonic Lodge brother, Sid (both recently passed away). We have a huge Jewish population as many of us moved here from the North East in the sixties to establish a new community. This memorial was born of that original migration across the Delaware River to Cherry Hill. As we are losing more and more witnesses every year, this memorial takes on added significance with the passing of each day.

It was made in memory of the six million Jewish martyrs and the righteous of all nations who perished in the Nazi Holocaust. The actual dedication and explanation plaque reads:

"We consecrate this eternal Memorial Flame to the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis in Europe, 1933-1945, in the most tragic of times known as the Holocaust. Six million victims, including more than one million children, were martyred solely because they were Jews. We remember and shall not forget the genocide which the mind cannot grasp: The degradation, the starvation, the torture, the rape, the experimentation on human beings, the gas chambers, the crematoria, the mass executions. We remember and shall not forget the concentration camps – monuments to man’s capacity for evil – where Jews suffered and died. [Hebrew writing] We remember and shall not forget the heroic resistance of Jews in the cities, the ghettos, the forests and in the very death camps themselves; we remember and shall not forget the righteous of all faiths [Hebrew Writing] who risked their lives to save Jews. We remember and shall not forget the world’s silence and [word is missing] which led not only to the Holocaust but to the deaths of millions of other people. In a world of darkness let us create light; in a world of despair let us rekindle hope."

Please park your vehicle here: N 39° 55.720 W 075° 03.737
The posted coordinates are accurate up to .005 inches.

(On west side:) H. KIMMELMAN (North side of base:) (Hebrew characters)/IN MEMORY OF/THE SIX MILLION/JEWISH MARTYRS/AND THE RIGHTEOUS/OF ALL NATIONS/WHO PERISHED/IN THE NAZI HOLOCAUST (West side of base:) "AND I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT" (Back of base:) "INTO YOU AND YOU SHALL" (South side of base, incised:) "LIVE AGAIN" (EZEKIEL 37:14) signed

Description

An abstract flame reaches upwards atop a four-sided base with a tapered top and inscriptions.

Remarks

Conceived by the Cherry Hill lodges of B'nai B'rith and realized through a total community effort. Sculpture pays tribute to the victims of the Holocaust. IAS files contain a statement by the artist about the sculpture and transcriptions of nearby plaques.