Donated to the city by Rochelle (Blechman) & Jerry Slivka, the memorial is intended to honour their family members and the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, as well as those killed in battle against the Nazis.
The memorial, designed by artist, sculptor and U Maine Professor of Art
Robert Katz in 2003, consists of an unpreserved square steel column with bronze plaques, a large mounted horizontal engraved granite stone and a matching granite bench, all mounted upon brick pavers. The bench is dedicated to Rochelle & Jerry Slivka "For Their Dedication to Holocaust Education". On either side of the memorial are shrub and flower beds, the whole surrounded by grass and mature trees. In the beds are six dogwoods, to commemorate the six million killed. In the spring they bloom yellow, which commemorates the yellow start the Nazis forced all Jews to wear.
The first public holocaust memorial in Maine, it was dedicated August 10, 2003, before a solemn crowd of 300. Altogether, this is a beautiful monument, intended to remind us of one of the darkest eras of our recent past.
Rochelle passed away in 2005 while Jerry Slivka died on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013 at the age of 97. They were founding members of the Maine Holocaust Human Rights Center.
Find below the newspaper article on the dedication, from the Lodi News-Sentinel of Lodi, California, published August 23, 2003.
Maine dedicates Holocaust memorial
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) —The first public Holocaust memorial in Maine has been dedicated at Temple Beth El, honoring the lives and deaths of those murdered by the Nazis.
More than 300 people turned out at the synagogue Aug. 10 to mark the opening of the Jerry and Rochelle Slivka Holocaust Memorial, named for a Portland couple who survived the Holocaust.
Created by sculptor Robert Katz, the granite memorial was commissioned by the Slivkas in memory of their family members and the 6 million Jews exterminated during World War II.
"I hope this will inspire, and make us aware that there are still bad people in the world who want to do bad things to other people," Jerry Slivka said.
The memorial, which faces east toward Jerusalem, features six dogwood trees, in memory of the 6 million; the dogwoods bloom yellow, to commemorate the yellow stars that Nazis forced Jews to wear.
During the ceremony, a brass box containing ash and dirt from three sites was welded behind a Star of David on the memorial. One of the sites was Auschwitz, the largest of the death camps.
From the Lodi News-Sentinel