Light emerging from darkness
The emergence of light from darkness as a symbol of hope is celebrated within the room.
Located in the recently redeveloped Melbourne Holocaust Museum (MHM), the Memorial Room provides a space for visitors to pay respect to the Holocaust victims; their families who settled in Melbourne after the war; and to propagate collective memory within the city’s multicultural community fabric.
Designer Stephen Jolson, a third-generation Holocaust survivor, aimed to uncover the story of the refugee embedded in Melbourne’s rich diversity.
The Star of David is used symbolically to tell a story of religion, discrimination and fragmentation leading to hope, solidarity and community.
The emergence of light from darkness as a symbol of hope is celebrated within the room.
Bringing in natural daylight, a 13-metre-high atrium follows the lines of a dissected Star of David up to a void where the fractured star forms a restructured symbol of hope through reflections in glass brick.
Honouring his connection with his grandparents, Jolson’s professional ties to the Memorial Room traces back two decades to his master thesis as an architecture student, when he created a database of Melbourne survivors, intricately mapping their journeys, which became the basis for the building design.
The project marked the first time that the stories of Melbourne’s population of Holocaust survivors, the largest number outside of Israel, had been thoroughly captured and recorded.
In 2019, Jolson’s decision to donate the database to MHM led to its invitation to submit a design for the Memorial Room.
“Despite intentionally seeking out places connected to my history, my first visit to Poland felt like a vacant experience.
“It was only when I returned with my grandfather, years later, that he was able to breathe life back into these empty places.
“I realised that he was the precious artefact, not the pair of shoes or pyjamas in the museums,” Jolson said.
“I learned so much by his emotional narrative, and from seeing through his eyes where he was born and where he was forced to labour, which gave me insight to his miraculous survival.
“It is a privilege to bring together my religion and my profession in creative expression.
“I am grateful to my grandparents and other survivors who not only had the strength to survive, but also the bravery to tell their story,” he added.
“It’s been a very powerful experience for the Melbourne community, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to engage with the space. Public architecture opens so many opportunities for interaction in unexpected ways, each one individual and profound.
“This project will resonate with me for a lifetime, and I hope it will continue to for generations who follow.”
Watch youtube.com/watch?v=rVLdDsfcVFM to
experience the words, voice and images created by Stephen Jolson.
comments