COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The state formally dedicated its statehouse memorial to victims of the Holocaust Monday, with speakers noting the importance of passing the history and lessons learned to future generations.
The monument, the Ohio Holocaust and Liberators Memorial, remembers the deaths of 12 million people in the Holocaust -- 6 million Jews and 6 million from other groups, including the mentally ill, homosexuals, Gypsies, developmentally disabled and political dissidents. It also honors Ohio soldiers who were part of the American liberation and survivors who chose the Buckeye State as home.
Speakers on Monday described the memorial as a moving piece of art, one that provokes strong emotions and reminds the world that individual life is sacred.
The design, created by artist Daniel Libeskind, the architect who designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the master plan for the post-9/11 World Trade Center site in New York, features a plaza with a limestone pathway that leads to two vertical forms made of bronze. The story of an Auschwitz survivor is embossed on the two forms, which are separated by an opening that guides the eye skyward to a cut-out form of a six-pointed star. Stainless steel outlines the shape of the star.
Inscribed on a wall is "If you save one life, it is as if you saved the world."
Language proposing the memorial was included in Kasich's mid-biennial budget review legislation in 2012.
Richard Finan, a former president of the Ohio Senate and chair of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board since its creation in the 1990s, was a vocal opponent who said the memorial contained a religious symbol that was not appropriate for the statehouse grounds. When the board chose the design for the memorial last July, Finan cast the lone no vote.
Finan has since stepped down from the board, in part because of the memorial.
Reader in their comments displayed mixed opinions on the design and whether it is appropriate for the state to erect such a monument on the grounds of the Ohio Statehouse.
Here's some of the comments posted recently by readers.
"Thank you Gov. Kasich for keeping building a memorial future generations can learn from and remember the horror of - and God willing, never have to live through."
"Good job, Governor. In an age of factless rhetoric, you proposed a monument to teach the facts to future generations. These things are necessary, supporting the facts with concrete."
"This is an inappropriate location for the monument. It should have been on private land, such as at a nearby synagogue. Even an appropriate public museum or park would have been better. Now I wonder what happens when Native Americans demand their own Holocaust monument on the statehouse lawn? If they are denied, then we hit First Amendment issues. If they are accepted, you open the floodgates to everyone wanting a monument on the statehouse lawn."
"Ugly design. Unconstitutional religious concept. Inconsistent with Civil War theme of the building and grounds. Would have far more relevance to so many more people if ALL holocausts would be remembered -- in a more solemn park -- not the busiest part of downtown Columbus. Political move by the governor."
"That thing is UGLY. The designers of our statehouse are surely rolling in their graves."
"There is nothing unconstitutional about remembering people killed for nothing more than being who they were. It is something that none of us should forget."