The Holocaust Museum begins with a semicircular colonnade of Jerusalem stone columns supporting a wooden arbor. Following the arbor is a series of black granite slabs etched with photographs of the tortured Holocaust history. While some artists depict the Holocaust only in the dimensions of its horrors with concrete, metal and barbed wire, the artist broads the theme here to include a serene and peaceful garden. The garden is composed of a large plaza of Jerusalem stone, a 200-foot-diameter water lily pond, and a classic semicircular colonnade and arbor, all set against a backdrop of a dense green palm forest. The procession continues into an area enclosed by a dome and semicircular wall with an eternal memorial flame. The next space is a dark and lonely stone tunnel illuminated by this slats of sunlight. A juxtaposition of spaces is created so that as one emerges from the dark and repressive tunnel and enters into the sculpture patio he experiences a burst of sunlight and a soaring space crowned only by the blue sky. The Sculpture of Love and Anguish is the artist’s portrayal of the Holocaust…frozen in a patine bronze. A giant outstretched arm, tattooed with a number from Auschwitz, rises from the earth. As the journey ends, the final sculpture depicts the same mother and two children who started the journey . . . now dead...framed by the words of Anne Frank ...“ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us only to meet the horrible truths and be shattered.”
