The Button Memorial (Children’s Holocaust Memorial)

Between 1939 and 1945, 1.5 million children were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, including over a million Jewish children, tens of thousands of Romani children and children with physical and mental disabilities. This Memorial, consisting of one button for every child lost, seeks to honour and give a voice to these children.

This project started at Moriah College in Wellington in 2008, where students initiated the collection of 1.5 million buttons to comprehend the sheer vastness of the number, and they received support from all over the world.

The Memorial incorporates a selection of variously sized "nesting tables", each increasing in size and volume of buttons.

The Memorial was launched in November 2018 at the National Library of New Zealand. It will remain there until April 13th 2019, and then progress to Christchurch Central Library. Later this year, it will travel to Auckland and then to other destinations after that

The Holocaust Centre of New Zealand mission is to:

1. Ensure that the memory of the Holocaust remains in the present, and shapes our future.

2. Work and converse with all of NZ society.

3. Teach and encourage people to take individual responsibility for opposing prejudice in all of its forms.

4. Guard against attempts to make any group a target of mass prejudice.

5. Encourage respect for diversity.

This project aims to raise a base target of $90,000. This would support the creation of the memorial itself, as well as running costs.

Thanks to a private donor, every dollar you donate will be matched.