Holocaust Memorial at California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Holocaust memorial at California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, United States.
The Holocaust Memorial at California Palace of the Legion of Honor is a sculpture by George Segal: eleven life-size figures cast in bronze and painted white, set inside a concrete wall and a barbed-wire fence. Ten emaciated bodies lie heaped in a cross or star formation; one survivor stands by the wire, his back to the dead, facing the Golden Gate.
Created by artist George Segal in 1984 using bronze casting techniques, the memorial commemorates victims and survivors of the Holocaust during World War II. Segal's work emerged during a period of growing awareness about the importance of public memorials.
The eleven figures are arranged in a cross and star formation, and Segal gave two of them symbolic roles: one corpse recalls Jesus, another is a woman holding an apple, evoking Eve, linking Jews and Christians. The single standing man, a survivor in camp clothing gripping the barbed wire, refers to Margaret Bourke-White's 1945 Life photograph of the liberation of Buchenwald. Segal's friends posed for the casts, so the bodies are not emaciated.
Located in Lincoln Park, the memorial is freely accessible to visitors exploring the city. The nearby JFCS Holocaust Center offers educational resources and programs focused on human rights awareness.
The original plaster model for this memorial is preserved at the Jewish Museum in New York, offering insight into Segal's creative process. The view across the city and toward the Golden Gate Bridge connects remembrance with the surrounding natural landscape.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,784 contributors worldwide.