Monday 14th May 2007. Enough Already Its' Miami, Florida.

Today I am moving from the Hispanic theme of yesterday to the other major culture here in Miami, Judaism.

I am visiting the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial 'A sculpture of love and anguish' bearing a message that we must never forget.

Though their bodies have perished, their souls and their spirit will forever remain immortal.

The sculpture is a dramatic tribute to the six million Jewish victims of Nazi terrorism during the second world war. The holocaust was the premeditated and systematic murder of millions of people during the planned destruction of European Jewry.

In the worst human catastrophe in modern history an entire people and their age-long culture was destined to become extinct.

In a powerful display of pain and suffering, at the centre of the memorial stands a bronze arm and hand stretched toward the sky. Struggling to climb it are life-sized sculptures depicting the horrified victims.

Remember that as a by-product of the Zyklon B fuelled gas chambers, human bones were crushed for fertiliser, hair was made into military blankets and soap was crafted from human fat.

Surrounding the monument a photographic history of some of the darkest years of human existence are etched into black granite where the walls chronicle the images of the infamous death camps.

The work of Kenneth Treister the memorial is a construction of Jerusalem stone and marble. The sculpture itself stands as part of a lily-filled reflection pool where I take time to sit awhile and ponder on the many questions we all face in our lives.

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This is a vital memory that cannot be forgotten and this is a good piece of work, but it is not excellent. The most famous resistance to this horror came in the shape of The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 19th 1943 which held the Germans at bay for some 27 days (the whole of France fell in only 14 days).

We owe it to this memory to get all our facts correct. There are some questionable facts here and with such a powerful statement everything must be accurate or else you are opening up the flood gates of bias. It would also have paid to have employed a good English teacher before etching this somewhat grammatically, and at times chronologically, challenged work.

I for one find that the statement

While The World Watched....
While The World Listened....
And Remained Silent..........

to be an interpretation rather than a historically accurate description of this story. 'The World' made mistakes but it fought a bloody conflict during the days of the holocaust to bring freedom and liberty.

Opened in February 1990, the greatest reflection on this work comes from Sabina Frydman a survivour of Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and the "March of the Dead"...

"This memorial is very dear to me. It is like our cemetery, where our names are inscribed...When school children visit the Memorial, their response is unbelievable. Some get very sad and some cry. We speak out against all prejudice...we want the children to know this".

Tonight Wendy and I dine on the Cuban delicacy of Pollo Tropical and black beans, it was lovely.