Metal artist Reuben Halpern has to be prodded to recount his stunning journey from post-war Poland to Israel and on to Birmingham. But his latest work provides a powerful window into his story and the devastating impact of anti-Semitism and hate.

In a city with a legacy of racial prejudice but that through self-examination has emerged as a beacon for human rights, there’s a new monument honoring the 6 million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust, as well as those who survived and ultimately thrived after making Alabama their home.

Funded by members of Birmingham’s Temple Beth El and others in the local Jewish community, the new Holocaust Memorial is open for all to view at Birmingham’s historic Elmwood Cemetery. An open house and dedication for the memorial will take place Sunday, April 27 – 80 years after the liberation of the Nazi death camps where Jews, homosexuals, the disabled, Roma, communists, dissidents and others were systematically murdered.

The 8-foot-tall, 700-pound steel sculpture, in the form of a dead tree, stands in stark contrast to the springtime greenery around it. It rests on old, rusted railroad tracks dating to when Blacks were enslaved in Alabama but also evoking the railcars that transported entire families and Jewish villages from across Europe and beyond to the Nazi extermination camps.

Halpern, an engineer by training, was born in Poland just three years after the end of World War II. Despite being targeted for death only because they were Jews, much of Halpern’s immediate family miraculously survived the war in occupied Poland, concealed part of the time in a hole in the ground. His grandmother and stepbrother, however, were gunned down by Nazi troops before they could safely hide.

Returning to their home after the war, Halpern’s mother was so emaciated it took years for her to regain the strength to have children. In 1948 she gave birth to Reuben.

But continued antisemitism kept the family on guard. They chose to hide their Jewish faith, raising Reuben and his sister as Catholics. He remembers attending church as a young boy and having a Christmas tree at home.

In 1957 the family emigrated to the recently founded nation of Israel. It was only then, on the ship transporting them to the port city of Haifa, that he learned he was Jewish.

Years later in Israel, Halpern met a young Jewish woman from Birmingham, Karen Allen, who was there to study Hebrew. They married and eventually moved with their children to her hometown; the Allens are among the founding members of Temple Beth El, a congregation that dates to 1907.

Halpern said the monument he created is designed to not only honor those who perished in the Holocaust, but those who made it through those horrific years and found a way to move on, start families and carry on their heritage in a new place. About 170 Holocaust survivors settled in Alabama following the war; today only a handful are still alive, but their descendants are raising their children and grandchildren across the state.

The open house for the new Holocaust Memorial takes place from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Block 40 in Birmingham’s Elmwood Cemetery, 600 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. A brief dedication service led by Temple Beth El Rabbi Steven Henkin will begin at 10 a.m.

Later in the day, the Alabama Holocaust Education Center will conduct its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day program at the Virginia Samford Theatre in Birmingham. The 3 p.m. event is free, but attendees are asked to register in advance. Halpern and his son, Allen, Temple Beth El’s current president, will speak during the program. To learn more and to register, click here. Doors open at 2:30 p.m.