Fountain of Tears: Holocaust and the Crucifixion of Jesus
Something you definitely need to see if you are wondering where was God during the holocaust and you also have many why's. Discover the connection between Jesus Crucifixion and the Holocaust.
Holocaust & Crucifixion - The fountain of Tears
After your visit to Auschwitz, you are going to finish at the Auschwitz Birkenau camp your tour. We highly recommend that you spend another 45 minutes visiting the Judenrampe and the Fountain of Tears.
It is definitely something that worth your time and it will possibly help you understand some more about the Holocaust and the connection with God.
The fountain of Tears in Oswiecim, Poland, can be included in your Auschwitz Visit. Please contact us for more details.
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Artist of the Fountain of Tears
A totally unrelated to the Holocaust person from Canada is the artist of the fountain of tears. We don't know why it was chosen to complete this piece of art and you might be wondering how he was able to talk about it without having any idea.
Well, that was one of the questions of the artist itself before he even starts. «How do I create a memorial to the Holocaust if I don't have any memory myself?». God's response is very clear and it is something that nearly made me cry. God response:
«But I do. I have a memory of every child, every man, every woman, every train car, every pit, every gas chamber, every cry, every prayer, and every tear! You create from my memory, not yours.»
Girls and drugs were the main focus of his life in Vancouver until the day he got out on the fields and tried to communicate with God. After 3 days, he accidentally got the book «Exodus» in his hands, and this is how everything started.
His conclusion was that: «If there is a God, it has to do something with the Jews and I need to find out about it!». So he started reading books about Jews, the Holocaust, and also about the beginning of Israel as a state.
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Finally, he decided to go to Israel for 6 months and also to start learning Hebrew. In Israel, he got fascinated by the Jew's history and he stayed for 7 years and he even got a permanent residence, which is very rare for a non-Jewish person to get.
During his time in Israel, he connected with Jesus more and more and he started believing in him and also started speaking about Jesus to the people of Israel, but he was always receiving negative feelings about this.
He was creating something out of wood for which had no idea about even what he was doing for many days. Suddenly he looked at it and he realized that it was Jesus healing the blind man. This piece finally ended with an Auschwitz survivor which was blind as a present after many years.
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Where the model was taken from?
The artist went to Yad Vashem institute where there are around 2,500,000 pictures saved in the archives. He spent there 2,5 hours looking into the terrible pictures taken out of various sources.
At one time a face comes to the screen. It was a prisoner from one concentration camp that had this something in his face that made him pick this face as his model. He got a copy from the institute and he started creating.
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Fountain of Tears
A sculptured dialog of suffering between the crucifixion and the holocaust. Is a wall 60 fit long and 12 fit height with 7 panels made of Jerusalem stone and 6 piles of fieldstones. Facing each one of the panels are 7 lifesize bronze figures.
The title: «The fountain of tears» is taken from the book of Jeremiah in the bible where the prophet is crying out to God: «O Lord, that my head was a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.»
Each one of the panels represents a different crucifixion scene and relates to the last 7 statements spoken by Jesus in the last moments of his life. The 6 piles of stones represent the memorial to the 6,000,000 Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
Then, the 7 bronze figures symbolize a holocaust survivor. His head is shaved and he is dressed in the striped uniform of the concentration camp. Each figure is responding and identifying each word spoken from the crucifixion.
There is also water that very slowly trickles over the stones symbolizing the tears from the cry of Jeremiah and channeled out at the courtyard to irrigate 6 olive trees.
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Sculptures Meaning
Gethsemane
In the courtyard, there is a sculpture called Gethsemane. Represents the struggle over the cup of suffering at the beginning of Crucifixion. Jesus lays on a stone and struggling with the cup of sorrows. At this moment the cup is full.
Panels
Each one of the panels refers to one of Jesus's last words on the cross and their connection to the holocaust.
- «Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do».
- «Today, you will be with me in paradise».
- «Mother, this is your son. Son, this is your mother».
- «My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?». Where is God?
- «I thirst».
- «It is complete».
- «Into your hands, I commend my spirit».
For the explanation and the identification of the above last words of Jesus with the holocaust, please see the video:
Butterfly and the Empty Cup
At the opposite end of the courtyard, there are another two sculptures. The butterfly and the empty cup, both symbolizing resurrection.
Connection
All of these elements come together to tell a story, to relate the possibility, to ask questions. Could the crucifixion and the holocaust have something in common? Historically has been said over and over again that the suffering of the crucifixion actually created suffering for the Jewish people.
It is important to understand the process of artistic creation in this work in order to understand its communication. The artist has taken the last seven words of Jesus while being on the cross and has done a creative meditation on each one to see whether there is an identification that somehow connects the two.
Following his charm about the rising of the Jewish state from the ashes of the Holocaust, the Canadian artist came to Israel at 21 years old and he finally lives in Israel for 30 years. He sees himself as a believer in Jesus and he deeply understands the conflict between the crucifixion and the Holocaust.
Thanks for Reading!
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