Think of it as Yoga for the brain, we are going to stretch a bit.
Love and Anguish by Kenneth Treister – Memory. Meaning. Truth.
The Holocaust happened a long time ago. For many people, it fades into history.
But not for everyone.
If your family was forced to flee Europe, or if relatives were murdered by the Nazis, you don’t forget. You can’t forget. The Holocaust stands as one of the clearest examples of how horrific human beings can become when ideology, power, and dehumanization collide.
And before anyone says, “that was then” — look around. Today, in places like Iran, tens of thousands of people are being killed, imprisoned, or disappeared simply because they want to be free. There’s political oppression, and there’s also a pseudo-religious justification layered on top of it. Different language, same cruelty.
But that’s not the point of this post.
The point is the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach.
This week is Holocaust Remembrance Week, and if you’ve never been to this memorial, you should go.
Let me tell you what it was like for me.
One day many many years ago, I had some free time in Miami Beach. I used to live there. I was driving around, passed the park, and thought, “Let’s go here. I’ve never been.”
You walk in, and the first thing you see is calm. A pond. A beautiful pond. Quiet. Reflective. In the distance, you notice something — a hand rising from the center, surrounded by a wall.
But you don’t understand the scale. Not yet.
Then you walk through a long corridor. It’s intentional. Narrow. Disorienting. You don’t quite know where you’re going, but it’s peaceful and unsettling at the same time.
And then it opens up.
You step into the center of the pond, and suddenly you see a statue of a child lying on the ground.
Then you look up.
And it hits you.
Bodies. Emaciated figures. Human beings reduced to skin and bone. Faces frozen in agony. Clinging. Falling. Reaching. People who look like what they must have looked like in the camps — starved, tortured, poisoned, treated worse than animals.
Surrounding you are the names. – Millions of them.
And yes — for anyone who wants to deny it — it did happen.
This monument is devastating. It is also extraordinary.
The moment I walked in, I started to cry.
And that matters, because I’m not someone sheltered from death. I’ve seen people killed in front of me. I’ve lived through things that harden you. But this was different.
It felt like getting hit in the chest.
A physical weight. A reminder. A warning.
This place doesn’t let you intellectualize history. It forces you to feel it.
If you’re anywhere near Miami Beach, go see it. Not for politics. Not for ideology. But for memory. For truth. And for the reminder of what human beings are capable of — for good and for evil.
Some things should never be forgotten and I still feel it today over 20 years later.
This is the Holocaust Memorial of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation in Miami Beach, and the central sculpture is called “Love and Anguish.”
Key facts
📍 Location: Miami Beach, Florida
✍️ Artist:Kenneth Treister (American sculptor)
🗿 Central element: A 40-foot bronze arm and hand reaching skyward, covered with emaciated human figures
🕯️ Dedicated: 1990
🕊️ Purpose: Memorial to the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust
The figures climbing, clinging, and collapsing on the arm symbolize desperation, suffering, human cruelty, and the instinct to survive, while the outstretched hand is often interpreted as:
a cry to God,
humanity’s final plea,
or a warning raised for future generations.
How many more of these will we have to build before humanity decides to be human?
