BEDFORD HEIGHTS, Ohio — A 62-year-old memorial honoring millions of Jewish Holocaust victims is now a national memorial.
The Kol Israel Foundation Holocaust Memorial in the Zion Memorial Park Cemetery in Bedford Heights, Ohio was designated a national monument in the 2023 Omnibus Bill signed in late December, the foundation said in a release. The memorial is believed to be the first Holocaust Memorial in the U.S. to receive the national designation.
“This will represent a triumph over evil by those heroic individuals who persevered against overwhelming odds,” said Kol Israel Foundation President Robert Zelwin. “Our family members would be ‘kvelling’ (beaming with pride) if they were alive today to see this.”
Sens. Sharrod Brown and Rob Portman introduced the measure in the Senate, while companion legislation was sponsored in the House by Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Tim Ryan, Joyce Beatty, Dave Joyce, Troy Balderson, Anthony Gonzalez and Mike Carey.
“Kol Israel Memorial Foundation educates Ohioans about the lessons of the Holocaust and preserves the memories of its victims,” Brown said. “When we pass that knowledge on to future generations, we recommit ourselves to ensuring it never happens again, and to fighting for a more just and peaceful world.”
The memorial was created in 1961 by northeast Ohio Holocaust survivors, and is considered the oldest such memorial in the country, according to the foundation, which has maintained the site since it was established.
The ashes of Jewish victims are buried at the memorial’s base, as well as artifacts from three different concentration camps, the foundation said. The low walls surrounding the memorial display the names of victims and survivors who have since died.
Inscriptions from notable Americans are engraved along the wall, such as a now-famous quote by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1945, which reads, “The things I saw beggar description…the visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick.”
Establishing the monument as a national memorial indicates that the country recognizes the site’s historical value and honors the sacrifice of the people killed in the Holocaust, said Mark Frank, past president and memorial chair of the Kol Israel Foundation.
The Kol Israel Foundation dedicates the Monument at Zion Memorial Park to Holocaust victims in 1961. (Photo courtesy of Herman Seid, Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections, Cleveland State University)
“Our parents and grandparents who established the monument, and future generations, will have this permanent symbol of the acknowledgment that the horrific event occurred and may rest in peace and in hope it will never happen again,” Frank said.
For Congress to assign a national designation to the monument is meaningful for Ohioans who are survivors, liberators and educators, said Howie Beigelman of Ohio Jewish Communities.
“With hate against Jews alarmingly high, it is all too timely that the Kol Israel Holocaust Memorial receives national designation, helping ensure ‘Never Again’ is more than just a pledge,” he said.
Each year, the memorial is the site of a service on the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the foundation said. It is also the site of the annual community-wide Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) Commemoration between Passover and Israel Independence Day.
The memorial also offers a place for families to honor loved ones who have no known resting place or who didn’t receive a proper burial, the foundation said.
Families who wish to have the names of Holocaust victims or survivors engraved on the monument can contact the Kol Israel Foundation.
The Zion Memorial Park Cemetery is located at 5461 Northfield Road in Bedford, Ohio.
