Since Jan. 24, Quinnipiac University has hosted “Memory and Legacy,” an exhibit that tells the story of the New Haven Holocaust Memorial located in Edgewood Park on Whalley Ave. The exhibit will close on Feb. 25 and those who worked to get it there are content that it served and benefited the Hamden community.
“Memory and Legacy” highlights the creation and upkeep of the memorial in the past 40 years, as well as several stories of Holocaust survivors. The Greater New Haven Holocaust Memory, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, is responsible for its presence on campus.
According to their website, the organization’s main objective is, “to provide for and oversee the maintenance, repair, preservation and upkeep of the New Haven Holocaust Memorial.”
While many monuments stand for holocaust awareness across the nation, this one was the first built on public land, recalled Doris Zelinsky, President of the Greater New Haven Holocaust Memory, Inc.
Zelinsky first came to New Haven to attend Yale College. She was a member of the first graduating class that included women in 1971. During her time as a student at Yale, she worked in the office of Mayor, Frank Logue and helped to facilitate getting the land on which they later built the memorial in 1977.
Since then, she has become one of three directors voluntarily running the organization in charge of the memorial’s continuous publicity and influence in the surrounding communities. “It’s a labor love,” Zelinsky said.
The memorial itself, although masked by snow today, consists of the Star of David beneath six rusted iron shafts, which symbolize the fences surrounding the concentration camps. The structure is amidst six evergreen trees, which pay tribute to the 6 million Jews who passed away in the camps. Beneath the base is a box of ashes from the Auschwitz concentration camp.
QU’s Arnold Bernhard Library is not the first location of the exhibit that highlights the memorial’s creation. “This is the tenth installation location,” said Eric Epstein, one of the directors. However, it is the first in the Hamden area.
According to Epstein, the exhibit has served a great educational purpose in each location. “What we have found with all of these locations is that; one, a lot of people were not aware of the existence of the memorial; and two, a lot of people don’t really understand what the holocaust is or was and how it continues to be an issue with similar things around the world,” he said.
The exhibit has been featured in city hall, Sacred Heart (a Catholic retreat) and senior locations such as Evergreen Woods of Branford. Veterans of World War II reside in some local senior homes so the exhibit has really had a chance to resonate there, Zelinsky said.
After the exhibit closes on Feb. 25 and is removed from campus on Feb. 28, it “gets a little Botox,” Zelinsky said. The items will receive minor repairs and later be revealed at its first public library location, the East Haven Public Library, in its’ aesthetically pleasing rotunda, she said.
The directors have consistently sought out educational areas for the exhibit. According to the company website, they hope to “encourage educators in the Greater New Haven area to utilize the potential of this memorial to teach about the Holocaust and encourage prejudice reduction.”
Zelinsky is also happy to have the exhibit at a University because the students hadn’t been born when the memorial was created. It gives them an opportunity to learn about the memorial and the holocaust, she said.
Epstein has hope that the exhibit will benefit how our generation operates in the future. “The memory of this horrible event in the forties has to stay with us so that when new events like this occur, we are compelled to act,” he said.
The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.