2. Holocaust Memorial Park in Brooklyn

New York’s first public memorial to the Holocaust is located in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. The park was dedicated by Mayor Edward Koch in 1985, and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani dedicated the memorial itself in 1997. The Holocaust Memorial Committee and the New York City Parks Department collaborated on this memorial, which features steel bars partially covered in brick, topped by a bronze flame used to symbolize the eternal memory of those lost in the Holocaust.

Rings of granite edge the bottom of the memorial and are engraved with nations greatly affected by the Holocaust, including Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Austria. Over 200 granite slabs are arranged around this, etched with names of the lives lost. The Holocaust Memorial Committee hopes to construct a Holocaust Education Center in the future to “address the urgent need to prevent hatred and anti-Semitism and to educate people about the lessons of the Holocaust and the tragic impact of bigotry and discrimination.”