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The building: The Valley of the Communities
Location: Yad Vashem Museum , Jerusalem Building Year: 1992 Architect: Lippa Yahalom, Dan Zur Structural Engineer: Y.Gordon On-site coordination and design: Levy Hershkovitz Typography: David Grossman, Yaki Molcho The memorial complex at Yad Vashem, The Holocaust 'Martyrs’ and Heroes'Remembrance Authority, includes a memorial for the Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust. A garden overlooking the Jerusalem Hills leads underground into asubterranean labyrinth that is open to the sky. The Valley of the Communities was dug out of the bedrock, leaving behind ‘islands’ of rock that protrude six to twelve meters above ground. These islands create a series of labyrinthine spaces; they allow for a division into countries, groups and communities that form an abstract geographic outline of Europe. The site is constructed of uneven blocks of stone, which were scarred by the machines digging into the bedrock. These blocks are interspersed with tablets of gray stone, which are engraved with the names of the destroyed cities and communities in Hebrew and Latin letters. The local vegetation planted in the upper part of the site is partially revealed to visitors as they gaze up towards the sky. The visit to the Valley allows for an overview which underscores the endless wave of destruction that swept across Europe. |