Pillars of Eternity: Sderot Memorial honors victims of October 7 attack

In Sderot, a memorial to those who were killed in the October 7 attack by Hamas was inaugurated, built from the remains of the city’s police station. It tells the impossible story of a city whose daily life is mixed with blood.

October 7 marked the deadliest day in the history of the State of Israel. On the morning of Simchat Torah, the settlements of the Western Negev and the capital city of Sderot, became centers of fighting and massacre of civilians, an attack without precedent and scope in the State of Israel.

No one in Israel can forget the videos from that morning in which armed terrorists were seen racing around the city of Sderot. The police station in the city was blown up after hours of fighting with the Hamas terrorists. 

There were 71 people were killed in Sderot on October 7, including residents of the city, visitors, and its defenders.

Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi, the team of the Sderot Development Fund, and the city's tourism department decided to build a commemorative and heritage site on the ruins of the police station. The site will tell the story of the impossibility of the city, whose life is now mixed with blood but holds extraordinary resilience, faith, heritage, and community.

For two months, testimonies were collected from the families of the fallen and the murdered, and a conceptual and detailed planning of commemoration and heritage platforms was written that would tell the story of the city and the community alongside the stories of the fallen.

“We wanted to create a place where visitors would be filled with hope and inspiration alongside memory and heritage," says Shlomit Esba Barnea, curator of the project and planner of the visitor experience.

Pillars of Eternity

The memorial site was built as an open garden, a public space near residents' and the city's founders' homes. In the center of the garden is the "Pillars of Eternity" monument, and in the other part is the path of the fallen in memory of the men and women of the city of Sderot who fell on October 7.

The "Pillars of Eternity" monument consists of a group of 18 columns, 11 meters high, rising into the sky with a space in the center. 

At the base are sentences of resilience chosen through public participation with the residents of the city of Sderot. At the top of the pages are quotes from letters that express the faith and hope of Sderot and the Jewish people throughout the ages, which stand firm in the face of destruction and bereavement. 

The monument represents the firm stand and mutual guarantee of the community of Sderot and the space that has opened up in the community in the fall of its sons and daughters. An original soundtrack by the local creators Haim Oliel Vern Elmaleh accompanies the monument.

Next to the central monument is a story about the events of the Shevah in Otaf and the streets. The city's defenders are given a place of honor in the area.

The second part of the area gives a place of honor to each of the 32 residents of the city who were murdered in the War of the Iron Swords.

Community garden

"Planning the garden space touches the community and the individual, crisis, memory, and growth," says landscape architect Hali Elul. The memory lane descends into the depths of the garden next to it, and the composite wall of memory is revealed from the ruins of the police station, on which the residents of the city of Sderot are immortalized one by one. In the background of the wall, rich vegetation closes the feeling of intimacy.

According to Cecilia Witts, the planner of the monument and the memorial components on the site, "The engraving of the letters and quotations on the columns made of iron and covered with concrete slabs resulted from the intention to give the texts and letters an eternal appearance, to engrave and mark them in the public space and the process, in our memory so that they will happen, not be forgotten and they will remain as a sign A memory for future generations as well.”

Making their voices heard

"What makes the monument unique is that public participation was held with the aim of hearing the residents and making their voices heard," says Prof. Yaniv Furia, an expert in heritage management and a faculty member in the Department of Tourism and Leisure Management at Ben Gurion University. "It is important to emphasize that the residents want them to come to the site and listen to their story. A story that includes injury to body and mind both before and after the seventh of October."

According to Furia, the residents of Sderot, who see themselves as pioneers, want the presence of Israelis and tourists who will recognize their resilience and courage. They could have moved to other places in the country, but they chose to live in Sderot and protect the people of Israel and the State of Israel."

The memorial site of Sderot was established in collaboration with the Takuma Directorate, the Ministry of Internal Security, and the Israel Police.

A wide-ranging team of consultants, which included academics and researchers in the field of commemoration, sought to voice the voices of the inspiring and unique commemoration sites in the world and to represent contemporary concepts of commemoration.

It has become a tourist anchor in the surrounding area, and every day it is visited by many buses of tourists and visitors who want to hear the incredible story of the Shiva events in October and be inspired by what is happening in the city.

The mayor of Sderot, Alon Davidi said: "The new monument that is being erected in our city, in the heart of the city where the police station stood. The old one is the result of extraordinary collaboration between the bereaved families, the city's residents, and our professional teams. The bereaved families were full partners in every planning and design stage, and their voices and needs were at the center of the commemoration process.

"The monument and its location symbolize the strength, perseverance, and unity of the Sderot community and will be a place where everyone can observe the memory of the fallen and draw inspiration from the way we dealt with the pain. It will be a source of hope, comfort, and strength for everyone who visits it, and will remind us of our mutual guarantee and the resilience of the Sderot community."