UK Holocaust Memorial Proposal, London England, 2017
A new national memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust will be placed at the center of British democracy
in the Victoria Tower Garden at Parliament. With architect John McAslan and landscape architect Lilly Jenks,
we have designed a memorial that seeks to make visible the invisible ways in which our public spaces can act as a mechanism to fight intolerance.
Our memorial proposal is a call to action. Composed of six million individual stones—one for each of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust—the Memorial invites visitors to take a stone and light a candle, symbolizing a pledge to prevent past injustices from repeating.
Four million of the stones are engraved with the names of the fathers, mothers, and children who were murdered during the Holocaust and two million left blank, symbolizing identities still unknown.
The Holocaust—or Shoah—shattered the sacred continuity of generations. Its legacy is not just the elimination of nearly six million Jews but the grievous loss of generations that never came to be—millions of stones yet to be placed. Taking the stone captures that individual memory and symbolizes our individual and collective commitment to justice and tolerance.
After the stones recede, an amphitheater emerges, creating a new contemplation space. A colonnaded entrance to the Learning Centre is on the left.
The receding pile reveals light shafts that illuminate the atrium of the Learning Centre underneath the Memorial.
We believe that now more than ever memorials must strengthen our resolve for justice and tolerance.
Please watch members of the MASS and John McAslan team explain and discuss the proposal.
