Jerusalem is very hilly and one of the largest hills is called Har Ha’Zikaron (Remembrance Mountain). At the bottom of the mountain is the Valley of the Communities, a stone labyrinth laid out in the shape of Eastern and Western Europe. The canyon created by the stones has the names of all the communities (big and small) lost during the Holocaust in geographical order. One wanders through to find the one that is meaningful to them. It’s powerful. Next up the hill is Yad Va’Shem, the Holocaust Museum, then higher on the hill are graves of soldiers, too many of course. Above that are the graves of the leaders of Israel through time and on the very top is the grave of Theodore Herzl, founder of the nation. It’s a sad place but a very beautiful one and scattered throughout are memorials (not graves) of various significant events in Israel’s history. They are the subject of this blog posting.
Valley of the Communities from above
The section of the Valley that includes Warsaw
Memorial to the Ethiopians who walked to Jerusalem from 1970 to the early 1990s and died on the road. It includes the names on the diagonal slabs, models of the types of huts they lived in in Ethiopia, and rock piles to simulate the graves where they were buried on the road.
Memorial to the Last Descendants is a memorial to Holocaust survivors who were the last in their family left alive. They managed to get to Israel in 1948, and died fighting in the War of Independence. Their memorial is an inverted house stuck in the ground with the roof at the bottom.
The names are carved on a slab that looks like the side that is missing off the top with the entrance empty. The stones you see are left by people who visit.
Memorial to those killed in terrorism attacks. Each black plaque is engraved with the names of those killed over a period of 10 years at a time. Unfortunately, it makes it possible to learn which periods of time have been the most deadly. The corner element “holding it together” is a damaged structure leaning to the side.
Memorial for people who died at sea trying to get to Israel. Their names are inscribed on the bottom of the pool.
Jews throughout Eastern Europe by serving in the Red Army helped defeat the Nazis. They are memorialized here, and it looks like a Soviet style memorial.
Memorial to the Dakar, a submarine purchased by Israel from England in 1968 that vanished enroute in the Mediterranean. There were 69 people aboard and it was not found until 1999. It is unknown what happened to it. It was one of four submarines lost that year- the others were French, Soviet, and American.
A salvaged portion of the submarine at one end of the memorial.
The memorial is below ground, as if you are descending into the submarine. There is a plaque for each of those lost.
This memorial is for those last fighters in the Old City in 1948. I believe there are 35 plaques.
You can see that it replicates one of the alleys of the Old City with plaques on either side. The actual bodies are buried in a common grave elsewhere in the cemetery. This group is called the Lamed Heh (the letters stand for the number 35).
The youngest one memorialized is Nassim Gini who was 9-1/2. He wasn’t in the army but was a runner back and forth in the days before high tech communication.
Poetry Without Words 