On Sunday May 31, 2026, the HSO Museum Club had the privilege of touring the National Holocaust Monument, led by members of the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship (CHES), Artur Wilczynski and Alyssa Novick. The monument was inaugurated in September of 2017, after a student had proposed a monument back in 2013, and had helped to get a parliamentary bill passed to construct one.

Our tour began with an explanation of the symbolism behind the shape of the monument. The monument is made up of six triangular sections, and when viewed from above they resemble the Star of David. The above view can also be seen to represent that important symbol of Judaism being broken, with this notion being contrasted by the monument itself, showing that Judaism remained together. The triangles in the design also represent the different triangular configurations that the Nazis used to identify different prisoners based on why they were in the camps. As we descended into the centre area of the monument, the noise from the traffic nearby faded away and we learnt that this was by design. The monument has high and thick concrete walls and a sloping entrance that is meant to symbolize the isolation of the victims of the Holocaust. On one of the walls in the centre area there are panels of information that provide historical context for the monument, such as what the Holocaust was, the growth of the Second World War, the mass murders that took place, and Canada’s role in all of this.

The centre and side areas also contain six images each embedded into their own wall, of different Holocaust sites as they look today. The images were photographed by Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky who had taken over 150 photos that had been narrowed down to these six. There is no specific order to view these photographs in, and each has an explanation written on a plaque next to it. The monument does not have much writing in it (aside from the panels of historical context) as it can be paired with the IWalk app which contains in depth explanations of the images and Holocaust Survivor testimonies which add a human, personal element to the monument.

The first image is of the abandoned rail tracks leading to Treblinka which had been a labour camp, with Treblinka II, a death camp just a few kilometres south of it. The second image is of the Okopowa Street Jewish cemetery in Warsaw. This was an area where food was smuggled into the neighbouring Warsaw ghetto, and where children were smuggled out. The next image is of a prayer room from a Czech town called Terezin that served as a ghetto. This prayer room had been constructed by the Nazis in preparation for a visit by the Red Cross, in an effort to make it seem that the prisoners were being treated well. Another image shown is of Track 17 in Berlin which was the track that most of the German Jews coming from Berlin were deported on. The track now has steel plaques on it with information about those who were deported. Next to the image is a photograph of Auschwitz-Birkenau which was the largest concentration camp. The last image is one next to the plaques of information which is of the site of the Death March in Mauthausen, Austria. Near the end of the war, the Nazis forced tens of thousands of prisoners to walk for days without food or water, and those who survived ended up at Mauthausen.

Moving away from the centre area, we were led to the room with the Flame of Remembrance, which is a space for reflection and memory. The flame is in the Jewish tradition and is called “Ner Tamid” (Hebrew for eternal light), and it has also been associated with God’s eternal presence.

The last section of the monument is a set of stairs (or elevator) leading up to an upper viewing area that looks out at the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill. This path out of the isolated area symbolizes the journey made by 40,000 Jewish people at the end of the war who came to Canada and eventually found peace here.

A big thank you to Artur Wilczynski and Alyssa Novick for leading the tour and to Ana Cristina Villegas for helping to organize the event! The National Holocaust Monument is open to the public for free every day from 7am to 9pm.