This fascinating book makes one think. And ask questions. Which are about the best things one can say of a book. James Young makes one think of what has been memorialized, what should be memorized but isn't, and indeed, what is a memorial? The book is a compilation of the processes of memory, starting with a brief review of the author's being on the committee that selected Germany's national memorial of the Holocaust. (This would seem like an impossible task: how that nation could memorialize the six million Jews it murdered?) Then a longer report of his being on the jury that selected New York City's 9/11 Memorial. (That could be turned into a book itself.) And finally, a detailed description of his advisory role in the selection of a memorial of the murder of 77 Norwegian youth at the Labor Party summer camp at Utoya outside Oslo, of which Young's chapter subhead is: "The memory of political terror." Other chapters in the book taking up thought-provoking subjects, such as as as "What is Jewish architecture? and "the Terrible beauty of Nazi aesthetics."
But to get to my initial point: thinking about memorials. We live in a neighborhood of memorials, the historic North End of Boston, the city's oldest area, one of the last remaining "Little Italy" neighborhoods in America (although now with a population only about 25% Italian-American). A five minute walk from our home, along the Freedom Trail, which itself is a memorial to the American Revolution, we find the Paul Revere statue in the "Prado," with walls are lined with historic details. One plaque has names of neighborhood men killed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The Old North Church, famous for its role at the start of the Revolution (its parishioners were mainly Loyalists, by the way) has a memorial of military dog tag replicas, each in honor of an American serviceman or woman killed in Afghanistan, Iraq and ISIS. Facing the Revere statue is St. Stephens Church where Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was baptized and where her funeral mass was held (there's a plaque on an old building a few blocks away, where she was born, when the neighborhood was mainly Irish).
Bordering the North End is the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, above the "Tip" O'Neill Tunnel, named for the local Congressman and Speaker of the House who was instrumental in getting federal financing for Boston's famous Big Dig. (Gov. Mitt Romney wanted it named Liberty Tunnel, but the legislature had other ideas. "Tip" must be smiling up in heaven, because the tunnel is frequently jammed because of fender bending Boston-style driving.) On the Greenway is the Armenian Heritage Park Memorial to the victims of the Genocide by Turks. It features a labyrinth, and a fascinating sculpture of large black blocks that are arranged in a different pattern each year. Near the North End are Faneuil Hall, the Cradle of Liberty, and Boston's Holocaust Memorial (of which author James Young was a consultant).
And there are statues galore: James Michael Curley, the city's most famous modern politician, "the Rascal King," so large a figure two statues are needed, one sitting, one standing. Boston is a sports town, and we find a statue of Red Auerbach, the most winnng coach of the Boston Celtics, and Bill Russell, Celtics player who was one of the greatest in the NBA. And there's one of boxer Tony DeMarco, Welterweight Champion, a North End lad. The list goes on and on.
Walk a bit and you find many more: A memorial of the Irish famine and immigration to America. Two memorials honor the five civilians killed in the Boston Massacre -- one, a statue on Boston Common, the other, a plaque in the walkway at the massacre site, next to the Old State House, which is itself a memorial to Colonial governance, a building built in 1713 and which came close to being dismantled and shipped to Chicago in the late 1800s, to be rebuilt there. (And that's a true story. The building was saved at the last minute by history-minded Bostonians.) Boston Common and Public Gardens have dozens of memorials: one honoring the first use of ether in surgery; a statue of George Washington on his horse (George's sword was often stolen until one was welded solidly to his hand); the Angel of Charity by the Lincoln Memorial sculptor, Daniel Chester French; the dramatic memorial to the 54th Regiment of free Blacks, a Union regiment formed in Boston in the Civil War; and the saddest and newest, memorializing the local men and women who died in the planes that departed from Boston on 9/11 and crashed into the Twin Towers.
Now, to a main point about the book: thinking about what's missing. Where's a memorial to Sacco and Vanzetti, Italian immigrants executed in 1927 for a crime most believe they were innocent. The trial and execution of the two Socialists gained attention world-wide. They were laid out in a funeral home on Hanover St., across the street from the Paul Revere statue. Tens of thousands lined the streets for their funeral procession. Their defense committee's offices are noted on a site plaque on Hanover St. And that's it.
Another missing memorial -- and not even an historc site plaque -- would be opposite the Holocaust Memorial, to the memory of slaves who were sold there, at Benjamin Franklin's father's shop. Now, it's a parking garage and the Boston Public Market. And another memorial would be at the end of Long Wharf, America's oldest wharf dating back to the early 1700s. From here the British troops who occupied Boston and civilians Loyal to the King evacuated the city on March 17, 1776. Boston was free. A plaque telling a bit of the wharf history is on a wharf building, but that's all.
Are plaques that briefly describe what happened at a site enough? Is mention in a guidebook enough? After all, there's a statue on the Charles River Esplanade of General George Patton, and his only local connection was his Bostonian wife. What should we do to create meaningful memorials? James Young's latest book will make you think anew, and ask questions when you visit a memorial or statue or read a brief plaque at a site. Or, especially, if there's a memorial missing.
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