Odense, March 2002

The "Pillar of Shame" in Berlin

All around the world, survivors of the Nazi concentration camps (and others with a similar first-hand experience of the atrocities), are busy adding notches to the plates that are to symbolise the victims of mass extermination. The plates are now starting to come back to us.

I hope that you too will join in our project to erect a Pillar of Shame in Berlin by filling out a plate with notches, and in so doing place your personal stamp on the monument. As a survivor you will contribute to chisel the fate of millions of fellow prisoners into the plate - as a testimony of the past handed over to the children of the future. By computer technique the notches will be transferred to a 2 m2 bronze plate. This plate will be collected as a "carpet" consisting of 50 plates (100 m2 all told) on which the sculpture will be placed.

We are delighted that at a board meeting in October 2000, the Association of Danish Detainees from the Fight for Freedom 1940-45, voted unanimously to support the project. Based on this widespread national support we will now send out sheets to our supporters throughout the world. These groups represent the many different groups of detainees (Gypsies, Jews, political prisoners, slave labourers, etc.).

On each sheet there is enough space for about 10,000 notches. The setting of so many notches might be a hard job for a person in failing health. But you are very welcome to merely fill out one or more of the fields with 500 notches (10 lines of 50 notches). We will then copy your notches to fill out the entire plate.

You might also like to fill out the plate with help from a younger friend, or member of your family. There is a strong element of symbolism is the united efforts of the young and the old, inasmuch as it helps to emphasise that the experience of the past is handed down to younger generations.

Once you have filled out the plate, please return it to me, see the address at the top of this page. Thank you very much for your participation in this project.

Yours faithfully,