Mount Hope unveils monument dedicated to 110 Holocaust survivors buried at cemetery

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – On Sunday, May 7, the Friends of Mount Hope unveiled the Holocaust Monument dedicated to the more than 110 survivors buried at the cemetery.  A large crowd of over 200 people represented the greater Jewish community, survivors’ families, the City of Rochester, and officials of the Town of Brighton. Bill Yager is the artist/sculptor who designed and crafted the monument.

In June of 2021, the Board of FOMH learned that Holocaust survivors were buried at Mount Hope and asked Marcia Birken, Professor Emerita from the College of Science at RIT, and Marjorie Barkin Searl, retired Chief Curator of the Memorial Art Gallery, both volunteers at Mount Hope Cemetery in their retirement, to chair and co-chair a Holocaust Committee.

They were charged with determining the number of Holocaust survivors interred at Mount Hope, develop an online Holocaust Archive of the survivors’ stories, and raise funds to erect a Holocaust monument at Mount Hope.

They are currently in the process of recording survivors’ stories, with 64 stories already loaded in an online archive.