Shrine Honors Child Holocaust Victims
JERUSALEM — Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum on Sunday dedicated a chamber of light memorial to 1.5 million Jewish children killed by the Nazis during World War II.
The underground memorial features four candles in the center of the chamber reflected by 500 mirrors placed at different angles to create the effect of a star-filled sky. The mirrors reflect 1.5 million separate points of light, each intended to symbolize the soul of a Jewish child who died in the Nazi Holocaust.
Several photographs of Jewish children are reflected in the glass walls, floor and ceiling of the dark chamber.
Visiting Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley attended the dedication ceremony along with Israeli President Chaim Herzog and Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek.
“It is a wrenching experience, you feel it in your gut,” Bradley told reporters.
California businessman Abraham Spiegel and his wife, Edita, donated $1.4 million to build the memorial in honor of their son, who was killed at the age of 2 in the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.
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