Holocaust Memorial

Leonard Baskin
1994; Bronze; Memorial, Sculpture
Central Campus; Raoul Wallenberg Plaza, east side of Rackham

Gift of the Ann Arbor Holocaust Memorial Foundation, as a memorial to the six million Jews and other victims of the Nazi Holocaust. Placed on the site of the first Jewish cemetery in Michigan (established 1848); named the Raoul Wallenberg Plaza in honor of the distinguished alumnus and humanitarian. This was the first such memorial placed at a public university in the United States. It is not clear if the figure is a man or a woman, which is what the artist Leonard Baskin intended. “It’s ambivalent. The figure is in some sort of misery, wrapped up entirely in himself.” Baskin said the fist “portrays deep and powerful anger,” the other arm is “far more felicitous, raised possibly in mercy, forgiveness, tenderness, gentleness, all of those qualities.”