Ohio Statehouse Holocaust Memorial

Columbus, Ohio, USA

Description

This outdoor memorial in Columbus, Ohio was conceived to keep alive the memory of the millions who lost their lives in the Holocaust and the American soldiers who liberated those in concentration camps.  Studio Libeskind’s design encourages the contemplation of ideas and values that cut across generations, ethnic identity, and creed.

Approaching from the Statehouse, the visitor walks on a limestone walkway between inclined, graduated stone walls and two stone benches towards a pair of large 18-ft-high bronze panels.  Embossed with a story told by a survivor of Auschwitz, the panels are also irregularly angled at their inner edges.  The planes meet in the center, the jagged edges forming a cutout in the shape of a six-pointed star.

The Ohio Holocaust and Liberators Memorial is a welcome place for reflection on public ground.  Upon one of its stone walls, this line honoring the camp liberators is engraved: “If you save one life, it is as if you saved the world.”

“The bronze book achieves an incredible sense of dynamism as each surface twists and turns, leaving no two surfaces parallel… In many ways, this project comes as much from Libeskind’s heart as from his hand.” –Architect’s Newspaper (June 30, 2014), USA