The building: The Hall of Remembrance
Location: Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
Building Year: 1961
Architect: Arieh El-hanani
Structural Engineers: Ya’akov Achbert
Gate: David Palombo, Bezalel Schatz
Sculptor: Kosso Elul
Floor: Aharon Kahana
Garden and Landscape Architecture: Lippa Yahalom, Dan Zur
This is the central building at Yad Vashem – The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority. The square building contains a single interior space. Its walls are built of gigantic volcanic rocks, which are piled one upon the other.
This monument is related to ancient commemorative architecture – a pile of stones in memory of the deceased. When seen from the exterior, the building’s concrete
roof appears like a continuation of the walls. On the interior, however, it becomes evident that the roof is separated from the façade by a narrow crack of light, and that the four concrete walls slope away from it like the walls of a large tent. An opening in the roof lets in a shaft of light which is located above the eternal flame burning on the ground. The smoke from this eternal fiame thus passes through the shaft of light towards the sky. The building’s entrance and exit are connected by means of an elevated concrete path that passes along two of the
walls. From this elevated ramp, the visitor’s gaze is directed down towards the floor, which is engraved with the names of 22 of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Ashes of Holocaust victims that were transported from the death camps are buried underground.
