HHRC History: Remembering the lives of Jerry and Rochelle, Holocaust Survivors

In 2003, the HHRC joined friends and family of Jerry and Rochelle Slivka, both Holocaust survivors, to dedicate a memorial in honor of their lives and their dedication to Holocaust education. Also attached is a news clipping from the Lodi News Sentinel.

Donated to the city by Rochelle (Blechman) & Jerry Slivka, the memorial is intended to honour their family members and the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, as well as those killed in battle against the Nazis.

The memorial, designed by artist, sculptor and U Maine Professor of Art Robert Katz in 2003, consists of an unpreserved square steel column with bronze plaques, a large mounted horizontal engraved granite stone and a matching granite bench, all mounted upon brick pavers. The bench is dedicated to Rochelle & Jerry Slivka "For Their Dedication to Holocaust Education". On either side of the memorial are shrub and flower beds, the whole surrounded by grass and mature trees. In the beds are six dogwoods, to commemorate the six million killed. In the spring they bloom yellow, which commemorates the yellow start the Nazis forced all Jews to wear.

The first public holocaust memorial in Maine, it was dedicated August 10, 2003, before a solemn crowd of 300. Altogether, this is a beautiful monument, intended to remind us of one of the darkest eras of our recent past.

Rochelle passed away in 2005 while Jerry Slivka died on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013 at the age of 97. They were founding members of the Maine Holocaust Human Rights Center.

Find below the newspaper article on the dedication, from the Lodi News-Sentinel of Lodi, California, published August 23, 2003.

SOURCE: https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMP3EY_Maine_Dedicates_Holocaust_Memorial_Portland_ME