Scrolls of Fire

“My words have been made of bronze and stone,
they are silent, heavy and longstanding.”

Nathan Rappaport

Six million trees have been planted in the Martyrs' Forest - a joint project of World B'nai Brith and KKL-JNF.
The centre of the forest is located on a mountain top in the heart of Moshav Kessalon in the Jerusalem Mountains. Metaphorical green candles recall the six million Jews who were killed by the Nazis. The forest comprises of four and half million pine trees, representing the adults that perished during the Holocaust, and one million and a half cypress trees, in memory of the children.

Besides the pine trees and Cypresses, the Martyrs` Forest also contains eucalyptus and carob trees. They blend with the indigenous oak, Israeli Terebinth and storax tree.

In 1974, the famed "Scrolls of Fire" Megilat Ha’esh, מגילת האש memorial was dedicated. The masterpiece was created by the well-known sculptor Nathan Rappaport, chronicling the events of the Holocaust in Europe and the revival of the State of Israel.
One scroll, or pillar, depicts the holocaust and its survivors, blends into the second scroll, showing the struggle to establish a new homeland.

The Holocaust pillar begins with the Jews being marched off to the concentration camps. Above them, faceless helmets and bayonets depict the Nazis and their inhumane acts of horror.


The Warsaw ghetto is depicted in flames; there are the defenders of the ghetto. An angel bears a Molotov cocktail, while a bearded man carries a rock. Ascending to the heavens in flames, are a mother and child, followed by survivors of the camps.

The survivors are seen leaving the camps – now with their eyes raised, in hope. A small boat represents the thousands who came to Israel in the pre-State days, during the clandestine immigration era.

There is an olive tree – whose branches are formed from human bodies. The allegory here is one of renewal. Just as a tree sprouts new branches so is the renewal for the nation that is establishing its homeland possible.

The central branch – which is depicted in a fetal position, perhaps best epitomizes this idea, that even in the midst of destruction a new life/nation can be formed.

In the second scroll are the symbols of the wandering Jew, a (walking) stick and a sack are left behind since the wandering is over and the Jew has reached his homeland. A child is seen holding a cluster of grapes, one of the Seven Species with which Eretz Israel was endowed.
A pregnant woman depicts the next generation that will be born into freedom.

Finally, the reunification of Jerusalem is depicted by a menorah, carried by a group of soldiers. This menorah is symbolic of the menorah from the Arch of Titus in Rome, which commemorated Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt.

A small bearded man that supports the menorah is representative of the Prophet Elijah and Rappaport’s apparent belief in divine intervention.

"Thus says the Lord God:
Behold, O my people,
I will open your graves
and cause you to come up out
of your graves and bring you
into the land of Israel.
And shall put my spirit in you,
and you shall live,
and I shall place you
in your own land."

Ezekiel 37: 12,14

For the Martyrs

Mutely the stone speaks
of the martyrdom of the six million
whose body drifted as smoke
through the air -

Silence - Silence - Silence-

You who were born afterwards
remember the men, women, children
who became martyrs
in a time of violence
Lower your heads in humility

Nelly Sachs

Nathan Rapoport was born in 1911, Warsaw, Poland where he studied at the Art Academy. Won a scholarship in 1936 for further studies in Italy and France.
He immigrated to the USA in 1950. His monumental sculptures commemorating the Holocaust can be found all over the world. In 1948 a sculpture was unveiled on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto; there is a statue of Mordechai Anilewitz at Kibbutz Yad Mordechair (after which the kibbutz was named) and two at Yad Vashem, also about the Warsaw Ghetto. Rapaport died in New York in 1987.