Holocaust Memorial Park

I came across a surprising and deeply meaningful memorial today. By accident and my second poorly navigated trip this week, i visited the Holocaust Memorial Park.

I was on my bike, as usual, headed towards Coney Island Creek when i realized i was not where I thought I was. I had it in my head that i was riding along Ocean Parkway, when instead I was on Ocean Ave. Even though I had on many, many, many occasions ridden along both of these roadways, today my sense of geographic awareness had failed me. Perhaps it was by chance, or perhaps a happy karmic slip of the mind.

When Ocean Avenue ended and i was not on Neptune ave. in Coney Island, I looked around for some markers to see where I had ended up. I was in fact in Sheepshead Bay, a few miles from my destination. I found a small lake with some swans and a footbridge to take some pictures of when i noticed a monument on the west end of the water. I walked over and saw the Holocaust Memorial. It is in a small, unassuming park with markers, plaques and the statue-like sculpture.

I never even heard of this memorial. I came home and did a little online research and found a little about it...but not much. The memorial was dedicated in 1997 and is the first such memorial, and museum of its kind anywhere in NYC. Here is the dedication:

"You who read these words, remember.Remember that, in the years of darkness from 1933 to 1945, in German-occupied Europe, six million men, women and children were murdered with unprecedented brutality only because they were Jews.Remember that thousands upon thousands of Jewish communities were uprooted, schools and synagogues destroyed, and the hopes of an entire generations reduced to ashes.Remember that all this happened at a time when evil was triumphant because the world remained silent."

-Elie Wiesel, SurvivorRecipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace, 1986"Remember", Inscription in the memorial by Elie Wiesel



I don't want to get preachy about this, but how come this isn't more known? The fact that I didn't ever hear about it is probably my own fault, but the fact that it isn't even on the map, or New York City's web-site is shameful.

If you want to see it, it is on Emmons and Shore at e. 15th st.