The Valley of the Communities, Holocaust memorial in Yad Vashem, Israel.
The Valley of the Communities spreads across a large area of natural bedrock with massive stone walls bearing engravings of more than 5000 community names. Narrow paths guide visitors through a maze of stone, creating the sense of walking through an archive carved into the landscape.
This memorial was designed in 1992 to honor Jewish communities that had existed for centuries before being destroyed during the Holocaust. The creation aimed to make this erasure visible and tangible through its design.
The arrangement of stone walls follows the geographic pattern of where Jewish communities lived across Europe and North Africa before the Second World War. Walking between the walls, visitors can sense the spatial distribution of these lost worlds.
The Valley is part of the Yad Vashem complex and can be explored during a visit to the memorial site. Visitors should wear comfortable shoes as the terrain is uneven and requires walking between stone formations.
The engraved names are not those of individuals but of entire communities, each with their own traditions, institutions, and ways of life. This transforms each name into a symbol for thousands of people and their erased worlds.
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