Forest of the Martyrs ( he, יער הקדושים) (Ya'ar HaKdoshim) is a

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

on the outskirts of West Jerusalem,

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. It is on the western edge of the Jerusalem Forest near

Beit Meir Beit Meir ( he, בֵּית מֵאִיר, lit. ''House of Meir'') is a religious moshav in central Israel. Located in the Jerusalem hills around nine miles from Jerusalem, just off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, it falls under the jurisdiction of ...

. It was planted as a memorial to those who died in the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

and contains six million trees, symbolizing the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

and their collaborators in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

History

The first trees for the forest were planted in 1951. The World B'nai Brith Jewish service organization financed a significant portion of the planting of the trees by the Jewish National Fund. In addition to the trees planted in the forest to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, the forest contains several memorials: * The

Scroll of Fire Scroll of Fire is a monument found in the Jerusalem hills, on the western outskirts of Jerusalem, Israel, and it commemorates Jewish history from The Holocaust until the Independence of Israel from the British. The monument was inaugurated in 197 ...

, a large bronze sculpture by

Nathan Rapoport Nathan Rapoport (1911–1987) was a Warsaw-born Jewish sculptor and painter, later a resident of Israel and then the United States. Biography Natan Yaakov Rapoport was born in Warsaw, Poland. In 1936, he won a scholarship to study in France and ...

, shaped like a double Torah scroll, one depicting scenes of destruction of the Jewish people in ancient and modern times, and the second depicting scenes of national rebirth. * The Martyrs Cave, a natural cave that developed as a place of reflection and communion with the memory of Holocaust victims. * The Anne Frank Memorial, a large cube depicting the annex in which the Frank family and others hid and a depiction of a chestnut tree that could be seen from the annex.

References

External links

maps
(annotated in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

)
Forest of the Martyrs
in the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art at the Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem {{Coord, 31, 46, 50, N, 35, 03, 40, E, source:cswiki_region:IL_type:landmark, display=title Monuments and memorials in Israel Holocaust commemoration Forests of Israel Protected areas of Jerusalem District

History

See also

References

External links