On January 27, 1945, the gates of Auschwitz camp were opened, a place that today, after 80 years, is still an extremely telling symbol of terror and genocide. The tragic events that scarred our country and its people left numerous wounds that we are still trying to heal, despite the passage of years, while protecting them from oblivion. These scars become memorials.
unhealed scars of the past
Read more: Visitor Service Center (COO) by Kozień Architekci, a Krakow-based studio
A monument commemorating the tens of thousands of Warsaw Ghetto residents buried in a mass grave, one of the largest mass graves in Europe, will be erected at the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street in Warsaw in 2022. The Jewish Community of Warsaw and the Cultural Heritage Foundation came up with the initiative to create this memorial, and the realization was entrusted to the team of Warsaw-based studio Archiworks, co-created by Karol Dzik, Krzysztof Matuszewski and Maciej Szpalerski.
The memorial is composed of two corten steel-framed quarters in the form of mounds descending toward a small square separating them
photo: Bartek Barczyk
"And they erected a huge pile of stones over it".
The realization in Warsaw's Wola district, nominated in the 9th edition of the Architectural Award of the President of the City of Warsaw, is composed of two quarters surrounded by frames of weathering steel in the form of mounds falling towards a small square separating them.
In Jewish culture no candles or flowers are placed on tombstones, but rather stones
photo: Bartek Barczyk
Demarcating the borders of the graves, the low corten walls will be covered with a natural layer of rust over time - a well-thought-out element of the project, which symbolically links permanence with transience. Not without significance are also the stones placed in steel frames - in Jewish culture no candles or flowers are placed on tombstones, but just stones, a durable material expressing memory and respect for the deceased.
The low corten walls delineating the borders of the graves will, with time, be covered with a natural layer of rust
photo: Bartek Barczyk
Between the mounds, in the center of the small square, the architects designed a vertical dominant - an openwork structure in the form of a cuboid also filled with stones, which, arranged in the form of a broken column, are to be a symbol of interrupted life and hope.
the stones, arranged in the form of a broken column, are meant to be a symbol of interrupted life and hope
photo: Bartek Barczyk
The project has primarily a symbolic meaning. It reflects the idea of memory and connection to history. The architectural form, which we have thought through in depth, makes the monument work on the imagination, encouraging visitors to interpret historical events in a personal way ," explain architects from the Archiworks studio. - The symbolism in the design refers to Jewish tradition, making it close and understandable to visitors, like a sea of stones that are meant to emphasize the permanence and immutability of the memory of the victims , they add.
details of the monument
photo: Bartek Barczyk