If the City Assembly accepts the proposal, a monument to Holocaust victims should be built at Branimirova Street in Zagreb. The memorial, designed by Dalibor Stošić and Krešimir Rogina, would serve to keep the memory of six million Jews killed during the Holocaust with a message that the past must not be repeated, reports Večernji List on May 27, 2019.
Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić proposed the decision to be made at the next session of the city assembly that will be held on June 4. The proposal points out that the City of Zagreb will construct the monument to the Holocaust victims according to the urbanistic-architectural solution proposed by sculptor Dalibor Stošić and architect Krešimir Rogina, who won the public competition. The memorial will be financed from the city budget and be erected on the land in the city centre owned by the Croatian Railways Infrastuktura company, which has given its consent.
“The monument to Holocaust victims is a gesture of memory for six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust with a message that the past must not be repeated. Holocaust was a systematic and organized persecution of the Jews, committed by the Third Reich and their allies from 1933 to 1945,” explains the draft decision.
The monument is conceived as a wall made of suitcases, creating a strong associative link with the Wailing Wall (Western Wall) in Jerusalem. “Before deportation, the Jews were told to pack a suitcase and carry only the most essential things with them. After arriving at the train station, the Nazis would order them to leave them there, with the promise they would be sent later.” The explanation says that the idea of a monument with about three hundred suitcases at the Zagreb Main Station as the place of departure and arrival is a metaphor for lives taken. One of the steps in the deprivation of humanity was the seizure of personal belongings, valuables and memories. The suitcases are a reminder of people’s stolen humanity.
The site will consist of two essential elements of a concrete base and the iron monument itself. It will comprise of a solid, horizontal, dark grey concrete surface measuring 12 x 24 metres, 35 centimetres thick, raised 5 centimetres above the walking level. The concrete will be impressed by a multitude of stars of David.
The base will allow people to sit along its edge, making the whole monument an integral part of the urbanity of the location. The memorial will also have special lighting.
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Translated from Večernji List.
