Plans for the erection of a memorial here to the 6,000,000 Jews annihilated by the Nazis were reported at a meeting last night at the Hotel Pierre arranged by the memorial committee. The city has donated land for the memorial and the committee is seeking to raise $500,000 for its construction.
President Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, in a message to the meeting, said he hoped the monument “may be a lasting symbol of unity of peoples of all races and creeds.” The message, with the Marshal’s signature, was presented by Vlado Popover, Yugoslav Ambassador to the United States. The Marshal announced that he would donate the granite for the memorial which is to be erected on Riverside Drive between 83rd and 84th Streets.
Former Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor, chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, a speaker its the meeting, said: “The glory of the memorial is that it speaks not of hate or fears, but of compassion and hope. It points no accusing finget at the past; rather it bids us keep faith with the future. Its meaning transcends races and creeds. It is not a particular but a universal beacon that may guide us, according as we believe, to Canaan, to Mecca or Bethlehem.”
Representative Emanuel Celler of Brooklyn said that the monument would serve to remind the world that anti-Semitism was like a prairie fire. He expressed the hope that the memorial would serve as a reminder that anti-Semitism carries within itself the seeds of world-wide destruction.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
