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THE MEMORIAL WATER LILY GARDEN

The water lily garden surrounds and encapsulates the memorial. It is the background that creates the mood of contemplated memory. It frames the memorial as it floats on a mirrored and eternal black sea. For millennium every culture and age has realized the aesthetic qualities of water as well as it importance in sustaining life. It is the essence of life and life, that precious gift, is the story of the Holocaust. The pond, 200 feet in diameter, is a perfect circle, the Jewish symbol for continuity, a continuum from one generation to another. Whereas many societies view existence as finite, having a beginning and end, Judaism views life as infinite, a never-ending story of memories where one generating flows and becomes one with another. The Torah is a scroll read continuously not a book lay between two covers. The pond is alive. First it reflects the sculptured arm, whose image shimmers during the day's sunlight and at night by the rays of the moon. Then upon this silken surface floats a collection of water lilies. Water lilies that are alive, organic, with blossoms a pure white, each representing one soul of the millions murdered in this tragedy. Some of the water lilies bloom during the day while others are night bloomers that come alive in the early evening and bloom until mid morning, again the theme, continuity and contemplated memory. Over the years I have asked visitors what they feel is the meaning of the outstretch, sculptured arm. Of the many beautiful thoughts that this question elicits, one stands out. The concept stated was that the sculpture, silhouetted against the clear blue sky, punts to the heavens while its reflection, which always follow in the black reflection pond, points to hell. It is the ancient battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. Thoughts by Ken Treister