The defaced Holocaust memorial in the Jerusalem hills. Credit: Shaar Hagai Field School.

JNS.org – A memorial to Holocaust victims located in the Jerusalem hills between Kibbutz Tzora and Moshav Eshtaol has been vandalized, and its metal plates bearing an inscription have been stolen, Israel Hayom reported.

Guides from the Shaar Hagai Field School hiking in the area discovered the vandalism. They informed the Israel Police, which began investigating the event on Tuesday. The memorial, titled the Scroll of Fire, is made of bronze. It stands 26 feet high and is sculpted in the shape of two scrolls that symbolize the Jewish people as the People of the Book. One scroll describes the Holocaust and the other the founding of the State of Israel.

The memorial was unveiled in 1972 after many years of work by artist Nathan Rapoport. Rapoport was born in Warsaw and was himself a Holocaust survivor. The images depicted on the part of the memorial devoted to the Holocaust include Janusz Korczak and the children he saved; a row of helmets that represent Nazi soldiers; and a Warsaw Ghetto partisan shown holding a grenade.

Shaar Hagai Field School director Moriah Ezra-Rosenzweig said, “The theft of part of the memorial is a blow to the values of the nation.”