The memorial was created by sculptor Michael Deiml and was officially opened on
Sunday 10th November 2002 at the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the transportation of the Jewish population of Černovice to Terezin. The organizers are jointly Černovice town, the Jewish community in Prague and the Černovice Jewish Memorial civic association. The objective of the memorial is to remember the
Jewish victims of the Holocaust in context of their lives and their surroundings in Černovice. The memorial commemorates not only those who perished in concentration camps, but also people who survived the genocide and its consequences. The memorial aims to mediate conflicts about individual lives and local history with world history of the 20th century. The information that the public memorial offers is general in nature and thus serves to educate and raise awareness in current and future generations. The Jewish Cemetery in Černovice was abandoned for sixty years. Though heavily damaged it was remained the only physical evidence of the former Jewish population of the town. The cemetery had not been maintained since the population was exterminated during the N**i occupation. The basic premise of the memorial is to form a symbolic and physical connection between the town and the Jewish population who lived there until 1942. The monument, which is immediately adjacent to the once abandoned Jewish cemetery & mortuary, consists of two parts: a permanent exhibition about the history of Jews in Černovice located inside the mortuary, and a memorial walkway, which symbolically restores the broken connection between the Jewish cemetery and the town. The memorial footpath honours the Černovice natives, citizens of Jewish origin, who were deported from their homes and of whom the vast majority were murdered in concentration camps. The stones which line the path are made of South Bohemian granite. Every single stone has an individual shape and is usually dedicated to one person whose roots are in Černovice. The upper surface of each stone is covered with a steel plate (stainless steel in which to mirror of heaven). They are engraved with the biographical data of individual victims. One side is lined with more than 40 memorial stones dedicated to those who perished during the Holocaust. On the opposite side there are 10 stones representing those who survived the war. This division of the dead and those who survived the selection corresponds to the concentration camps. Two of the stones and memorial plaques remain symbolically empty, without names and dates. They convey the memory of those whose existence and fate is unknown. An integral part of the memorial is a permanent exhibition in the cemetery morgue. In the middle of the morgue floor floats a halved charred wooden trunk, which symbolizes the genocide of the Jewish people. On the walls are located texts accompanied by authentic photographs that document the development of the local Jewish community. The exhibition conveys, in a town where no Jewish population now lives, not only general insights into the history of the Jews, but also in the development of European history and their impact on the tragic fate of individual Jewish citizens. The memorial was instigated by Arenda Michael and other members of the civic association of Černovice.
