Memory / Eyes on the future 2016

Memory / Eyes on the Future

As I sit down to plan the sculptural elements in the memorial park in the old Jewish cemetery in Bitola, Macedonia, I am faced with a complex challenge.
The cemetery is located at the entrance to the city, for those who come from the direction of the capital, Skopje. The high hill is the first sight seen by all who enter the city. The climb to the top of the steep hillside rewards visitors with a breathtaking view of the city. Thus strategically located, the cemetery is very important for the renewal and development of the urban fabric of Bitola. Furthermore, the cemetery’s topographic structure – a tall, sizeable hill enclosed by an impressive stone wall – must be taken into account in my work.

When Storylines Pick Up All of a Sudden | Naomi R. Azar

This story began a long time ago. On March 4th 1943, to be exact, or possibly two weeks earlier, when Signora Donna Kamhi, a midwife, said to her daughter, Bella Grünberg “Come, daughter, let us move to the village. The air is better there, and the food is healthier. You will have a good birth there.” And so, the young couple, Bella and her husband Leo Grünberg, set off from Skopje along with Signora Donna, and settled in one of the nearby villages. On March 4th 1943, a healthy baby boy came into the world. Overjoyed, the young father went to Skopje to bring a Mohel (Jewish circumciser). Seeing him, the townsfolk yelled “Run for your life! The Germans have taken all the Jews!” Leo ran back to the village, and they three to a distant villages.

JEWISH CEMETERY - MEMORIAL PARK OF THE JEWS from Monastir / Bitola

For almost five centuries, the “Home of the living” as this place was called by the former Jewish citizens of Monastir/Bitola served as their cemetery. In March 1943, the horrible gust of the Holocaust forever wiped out the last generation of Jews from this town, and as they disappeared in the ashes of Treblinka, it ceased serving its traditional funerary function.

Today, we restore this historic place as the "Park of living memories", dedicating it to the exterminated Jewish community and their precious contribution to our presence. By honoring the memory of those who have preceded us, we have an opportunity to experience the uniqueness of our own existence as opposed to the universal transiency of all life.

Inevitable as death and amazing as life, the complex Jewish Cemetery and Memorial Park, encourages us to embrace the messages of the past while forging our own for those who will one day become our successors.