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| Offending Stone |
A group of activists unveiled five new stones memorializing
non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust at Sheepshead Bay’s Holocaust
Memorial Park this weekend, capping off nearly two decades of fighting
for the right against a local committee opposed to the installation.
The stones, dispersed throughout the public park, remember the
persecution of homosexual victims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled,
Roma and Sinti, and “asocials.” The unveiling ended nearly 20 years of
struggle for broader recognition within the park. Members of the
Holocaust Memorial Committee, charged with reviewing and approving the
placement of new names and markers, held a protest led by City Council
candidate Ari Kagan, who complained that the group of “outsiders” went
over the committee’s head in getting approval to place the stone, and
represented a threat to the memory of Jewish victims.
Despite the protest, the activists who pushed for the markers’
placement held a solemn service on Sunday and viewed the unveiling as a
victory for the memory of lesser-known victims of the Nazi atrocities –
and for social acceptance of those groups today.
“Things have changed in the last two decades,” said Richard Landman,
the gay son of two Jewish Holocaust survivors who has spearheaded the
initiative for inclusion. He noted the smaller size of the protest
compared to previous years and the acceptance from politicians including
former Mayor Ed Koch and Congressman
Jerrold Nadler.
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| communists, lesbians, and alcoholics |
“I’m looking at this toward the future. This is a city park, where
there are many people who are affected by the Nazi-era of the Holocaust.
I want that, in the future, other groups should come here and learn
their lessons of the Holocaust,” he added.
Landman was joined by represenatives from Congregation Beit Simchat
Torah, Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, Lambda Independent Democrats of
Brooklyn, Disabilities Network of NYC, Disabled in Action and Voice of
Roma.
The proponents of inclusion have been fighting for the addition of
the stones at Holocaust Memorial Park at Emmons Avenue and West End
Avenue since the early 1990s, before the memorial had even been
completed. Landman formed the International Association of Lesbian and
Gay Children of Holocaust Survivors in an era when gay and lesbian
people were being given the boot from second generation survivors
organizations. Around that time he also learned that the original plans
to honor non-Jewish victims had been nixed, and he began fighting to
have them reinstated.
The battle made headlines as early as 1996 – a year before the park
was officially dedicated by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The committee, which
sponsored the project in conjunction with then-Borough President Howard
Golden, claimed that recognition on the base of the eternal light in
the memorial’s centerpiece was sufficient – clashing with the wishes of
the park’s architect. The New York Times
reported at the time:
”We felt it was redundant and did not have to be included
because it was in the summary,” said Ira Bilus of Manhattan Beach, a
committee member.
Besides, Mr. Bilus said, the architect, George Vellonakis, was not
responsible for content. ”He was commissioned to do the architecture and
the design,” he said. ”We were commissioned to do the writing.”
Mr. Vellonakis has continued to press for separate recognition of
other groups. ”I really felt it was my responsibility to recognize every
group and represent history properly,” he said. ”As the artist and
designer, it’s my concept.”
As the project went forward, the committee initially won out with the
aid of sympathetic politicians like Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who also
didn’t want non-Jewish victims recognized with additional stones in the
park.
“It was part of the original plans, but because of politics it never got done and I thought that was a shonda,” Landman said.
Still, Landman made a request, he said, nearly every year for
approximately 15 years, which was denied by the group without
justification. Finally, in the early 2000s, Landman appealed to the
Parks Department and the Mayor’s Office, appealing with an Article 78
proceeding, which charged that the committee’s decision was “arbitrary
and capricious,” and in violation of the state constitution.
The Parks Department established an appeals process for the memorial
as a result, and created a Blue Ribbon advisory panel to review
Landman’s request – ultimately greenlighting it.
The stones were quietly installed in the park in July 2012, but
Landman held off having a formal dedication for a year to test the
community’s reaction. He also tried to keep this weekend’s ceremony
quiet, hoping to avoid the ire of opponents.
“I wanted it to be a memorial, a commemoration of those victims who
died,” Landman said. “I don’t want it to be a big, loud protest. It’s
done. We’ve done it. It was done last year.”
Still, a protest was had.
Led by District Leader Ari Kagan, a candidate for City Council and
member of the Holocaust Memorial Committee, a crowd of about two dozen
gathered before the stones’ unveiling for a series of speeches delivered
largely in Russian.
Kagan has been outspoken about the placement of the stones. He did
not respond to a request for an interview as this article went to
publication, but did express his concerns via Facebook.
He
wrote:
I am outraged that the City of New York completely
ignored the opinion of the Holocaust Memorial Committee, but preferred
to listen to the opinions of the International Association of Gay and
Lesbian Children of Holocaust Survivors, and groups like the Communist
Party – USA and LAMBDA Democrats.
The Nazis killed many people during the war, but this sacred park at
Sheepshead Bay is the Holocaust Memorial Park – not the “Nazi Victims
Park” or the “WWII Victims Park”. The Committee made sure that all
non-Jewish victims of Nazi atrocities were acknowledged in this park.
In 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine
Quinn tried to impose on us their decision to install these five new
markers. Unlike every other stone or inscription, these five markers
were to be installed without any review by historical committees or
without the involvement of the communities of South Brooklyn.
We protested and the Mayor backed off. But today -four years later-
we learned that the City once again ignored many local Holocaust
survivors organizations and caved in to the demands of outsiders who
clearly have a political agenda.
It is very sad!
(
sheepsheadbites.com)
