Visit the Memorial
The Horwitz-Wasserman Memorial Plaza has welcomed over 50,000 visitors since its opening in 2018. Visitors explore the oldest public Holocaust Monument in the United States and the site’s other educational features throughout every season.
Six Pillars
The Six Pillars honor the memory of the Six Million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. The pillars are presented in pairs, each chronicling an atrocity of the Holocaust and contrasting it with American constitutional protections and values.
Tree Grove
A grove of trees represents the woodlands that sheltered those who resisted the Nazi regime. It honors the legacy of those who risked their lives by fighting hatred and bigotry.
Train Tracks
Original train tracks from the railroad adjacent to the Death Camp of Treblinka in Poland are embedded in the Plaza’s paving to remind visitors of the industrialized, mass deportation of millions of victims.
The Theresienstadt Tree
Children imprisoned at the Theresienstadt Camp nurtured a sapling knowing that they would not live to see it mature, yet believing that this tree would survive. The iconic tree’s sapling will be planted at the Plaza to symbolize life and hope for future generations.
Original Monument
Nathan Rapoport’s Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs was the first public monument in North America to memorialize the victims of the Holocaust. It was given to the City of Philadelphia in 1964 by a group of Holocaust survivors and local Jewish leaders, led by the Association of Jewish New Americans together with the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia. Rapoport’s towering bronze sculpture remains the only major public monument in Philadelphia dedicated to the remembrance of the Holocaust.
Mural
The Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation (PHRF) and Mural Arts Philadelphia (MAP) are proud to announce plans for commissioning a large mural for the Horwitz-Wasserman Memorial Plaza on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
PLAZA FEATURES
Explore the Memorial Plaza’s several interpretive features that together create a place of learning and remembrance.
Experience IWALK
Visitors can also use our free IWalk app to experience the Memorial Plaza through survivor and eyewitness testimony.
Plan your visit
The Memorial Plaza is a public park that is accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
History of the Memorial Plaza
To this day, the Monument remains the only major public monument in Philadelphia dedicated to the remembrance of the Holocaust.