Yesterday was the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. A few days back I went out to Lebreton Flats, where the National Holocaust Monument stands near the War Museum. Opened in 2017, it is a collaborative effort between architect Daniel Libeskind, historian Doris Bergen, landscape architect Claude Cormier, and photographer Edward Burtynsky. Its jagged, harsh angles fit the subject matter well. As it is an open air monument, during the winter, two of the three access points are not winter maintained. Paths within are maintained, however, for the winter visitor.
Inside, a series of panels tells the story of the Holocaust, the darkest chapter of World War Two.
Burtynsky has several of his photographs of Holocaust sites, taken in the current day, etched onto the walls.
This one is Site Of Death March, depicting a country road in Austria where death camp prisoners were marched out near the end of the war by their captors.
Track 17 is at left, showing a freight yard track in Berlin where Jews and other persecuted people were loaded onto the trains. At right is Fence, Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Abandoned Railbed gives a current day view of the old railbed near Treblinka, as nature slowly reclaims it.
At left here is Hiding Place. A Jewish cemetery outside Warsaw became a place of refuge for Jews. At right is Prayer Room, a place of sanctuary in Therensienstadt, now part of the Czech Republic. Created in the conditions of the ghetto during the occupation, this place of prayer and devotion was preserved.
Two more views of the monument. I've visited here on a number of occasions, and it is always haunting.