Survivors just want us to remember

Traveling slowly through Wyuka Cemetery’s winding roads, visitors will come across a giant triangular sculpture tucked into the northeast corner of the all-faith cemetery. The striking silver monument is dedicated to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and in honor of all the liberators and survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. The Nebraska Holocaust Memorial was created through the support of thoughtful Nebraska citizens with the intent to remember and educate on lessons of history.

Wyuka Cemetery is an ideal location for the memorial because it is the nation’s only state cemetery. “Nebraskans of all walks of life are buried at Wyuka,” said Gary Hill, volunteer Managing Director of the Nebraska Holocaust Memorial. “Governors, military, slaves, civil war soldiers, unmarked graves,” he said could be found here. “Black and white, rich and poor.”

Next to the large monument, visitors will find the Wall of Remembrance as well as the Children’s Butterfly Garden. A “sea of stones” surrounding the monument represent the millions of men, women and children who were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. “There are an estimated 11 million stones,” Hill said. “While 6 million were Jews, many others – including gypsies, homosexuals and Catholics - were slaughtered in this government-sponsored genocide.”

Within the stone garden are bricks with the names of individuals with Nebraska ties who died in the holocaust. Visitors often place stones from the garden on the memorial, following the Jewish tradition of leaving a stone to indicate the loved one was not forgotten.

Lincoln Community Foundation is home to the Sam and Frances Fried Holocaust Memorial Maintenance Fund, which helps to preserve the memorial. “Our goal is to have enough endowment that money will never be an issue for volunteers in the future,” said Hill. He and a team of volunteers, along with the grounds staff at Wyuka, care for the memorial, ensuring that visitors who stop by from near and far have a personal and valuable experience.

The memorial, dedicated in 2007, receives no state funds. Schools from around the state visit the Memorial annually, and ongoing educational programming is a priority. Organizers are creating a new website that will allow students to trace family histories.

Individuals can support the ongoing educational improvements by donating $100 toward personalized bricks. Hill also hopes to adda brick to the butterfly garden with the name of every middle and high school in Nebraska.

Gary has become a Legacy Society member at LCF for his end of life gift that will contribute to the ongoing maintenance and improvement of the Memorial.

His advice to donors who want to leave their mark is, “Find what does good in the community.” Hill encourages others to consider leaving a portion of a family estate to the Lincoln Community Foundation with instructions indicating the causes or organizations you wish to support.

The memorial is considered one of Lincoln’s top 50 attractions by TripAdvisor.com. A visitor from Brooklyn, NY left a review on Trip Advisor, “It was so beautiful, so quiet, so well done that of course my tears just flowed.”

Tell us what is making a mark in Lincoln that you’d like to support. To find a way to make a lasting gift, contact Chip DeBuse, VP for Development, at 402-474 2345 or chipd@lcf.org.