Baltimore's Holocaust Memorial

Baltimore's Holocaust Memorial. Dedicated October 6, 1997. , Recalling the elaborate rail system used during the Holocaust to transport millions of people to their deaths, the concrete monoliths symbolize two abandoned rail cars. Haunting messages, written by a survivor, are the only freight these rail cars now carry., The rail cars separate two contrasting zones. A forbidden green sanctuary to the north can be seen through the rail car doors, but is inaccessible. Passage is possible only across the harsh and desolate rail yard to the south., A triangular concrete platform breaks through parallel sets of train tracks. The triangular badge was the Nazi symbol for prisoners, with different colors denoting the different classes of prisoners. The star of David, formed by two overlaid yellow triangles, was the symbol of the Jewish prisoner., The rail yard is now vacant and the space between the tracks is overgrown. Tall, windblown grasses grow between tracks that once carried the train cars filled with people on their final journey., [Caption:] , Jews from Lodz ghetto boarding the freight cars that will take them to the Chelmno Extermination Camp