Memorial to Victims of Holocaust Is Dedicated

Amid tight security Sunday, Los Angeles’ Jewish and political leaders gathered at Pan-Pacific Park in the Fairfax district to dedicate the West Coast’s first monument to victims of the Holocaust.

The $2.6-million memorial is dominated by six black granite columns, each 18-feet tall, symbolizing the 6 million Jews who perished in the Nazi genocide and the smokestacks of death camp crematories.

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) warned that the anti-Semitism that produced the slaughter of Jews five decades ago is still alive.

“(The) Holocaust is still not quite over, and the cancer of hate has survived the Holocaust,” Lantos told the 1,000 people at the sundown dedication ceremony that attracted a number of prominent elected officials.

A Jewish resistance fighter in Hungary during World War II, Lantos cited the neo-Nazi fascinations of the skinheads, the booing of Jewish soccer players in Hungary, and the threats to Jews in Moldavia as evidence of the surviving hatred.

The monument is the fruit of the labors of a group of Los Angeles-area Holocaust survivors, led by philanthropist and real estate developer Jona Goldrich.

Mayor Tom Bradley praised the wisdom of placing the monument in a park used by people from every racial group in Los Angeles.

Bradley’s point seemed to be proved by waiter Enrique Gonzales, 25, a Mexican immigrant who cradled a soccer ball in his arms from the sidelines of the ceremony. “Yeah, it reminds me of what happened,” Gonzales said. “It should be a lesson for us all.”

Wolf Alba, 86, a retired printer who lives in the Fairfax area, said the monument is a symbolic grave site for the family he lost to the Holocaust while he fought in the Russian army.