The Holocaust Memorial / Miami Beach, FL

In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, today on January 27, I'm sharing some images and reflections from my visit to the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach, Florida.
It's a somber memorial.
A beautiful work of art shrouded in sadness.
A reminder of six million lives lost.

Miami Beach's Holocaust Memorial honors the lives that were lost, sheds light and remembrance on the atrocities of the Holocaust, and provides a place for locals and travelers to visit and pay respects to the loved ones that they lost to this tragic time in mankind's history.

The Memorial was constructed by sculptor Kenneth Treister, who was commissioned for the project in 1985. "No one can comprehend the number of six million or the fact that each of the six million was a person, with family, friends and a full life, each enduring the most excruciating agony every second, minute, hour and day of the Holocaust" said Kenneth Treister. "The immensity of this tragedy is infinite. To express it artistically, impossible... but I had to try." His goal was to lead each visitor through a visual, historical and emotional experience.

I have visited the Memorial twice, and the first visit was on a cloudy day just as a thunderstorm was approaching. The dark storm clouds cast an eery light on the sculptures, as if to remind me of what a dark time in history this artwork described.

Walking down the covered pathway to enter the main room of the Memorial, voices and singing can be heard from the speakers, leading you into the heartbreaking sculptures that come next. Arms reaching out. Mouthes screaming, crying, begging for help. Bodies withering away from starvation. An unfathomable number of victims' names lining the walls.
It's hard to find the words to describe the experience that I had by visiting the Memorial, so instead, I will let the images speak for themselves.

Was it gruesome and hard to look at? Yes.
But it's important that we look and that we remember it happened, so that it never happens again.

"What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again." - Anne Frank