Sunland Memorial Park Holocaust Memorial - Sun City, Arizona - The Holocaust on Waymarking.com

The memorial consists of 2 sides. Side 1 has a poem on it with 6 blue lamps below. Side 2 has other words and a bronze flame. It is in the Jewish part of the cemetery, readily visible from the parking lot. Nothing on it gives a clue about when it was dedicated or who placed it there. Many of those who live in the area would have been alive during WW II and have heard of the horrors of the Holocaust. There is a significant number of Jews who live in the area too, as evidenced by the size of the section in this cemetery set aside for them.

Side 1 reads:

The Butterfly

The last, very the last.
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
against a white stone. . .

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly 'way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it wished to
kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live in here,
in the ghetto.

June 4, 1942 Pavel Friedmann

In memory of the
6 million victims
of Nazi brutality

Side 2 reads:

(Hebrew words)
May God remember forever
my dear ones who have
gone to their eternal rest.

(Hebrew words)
Yea though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
For Thou art with me.

Pavel Friedmann (January 7, 1921 – September 29, 1944) was a Jewish Czechoslovak poet who received posthumous fame for his poem The Butterfly. He was in Theresienstadt concentration camp before being transferred to Auschwitz, where he died.

The bible verse is from Psalm 23:4

My initial reaction to this memorial is that the words on it seemed trite. Granted it was hot and I had a toothache, but still those were my initial thoughts. As I looked at the photos later, and looked up the poem on it by Pavel Friedmann, I realize how painful those words are. They are a fitting memorial to all that was lost in the Holocaust.

Physical Address: 15826 Del Webb Blvd Sun City, AZ USA Date Dedicated: 01/01/2011 Supporting Website: [Web Link] Fee/Donation: free Memorial Type: Monument/Plaque

Visit Instructions:
A picture of you is required at the site. A full description of your thoughts and experience on the site.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   06/14/2011 Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking visited it