On March 1, over 27,000 flags were planted on the West Lawn to represent the volume of those killed during the Holocaust. Each flag represents 500 people. On signs placed around the lawn, the exact numbers of each kind of flag were given.
8534 flags represent Jewish adults, 3500 flags represent Jewish children, 1000 flags represent the Roma and Sinti peoples, 30 flags represent homosexuals, 6 flags represent Jehova’s Witnesses, 550 flags represent the mentally or physically disabled, 6600 represent Soviet POW’s, 6000 flags represent Polish Catholics, 40 flags represent Spanish Republicans, and 1400 white flags represent the Serbians killed.
The total number of people killed in the Holocaust adds up to over 13 million. The message at the bottom of the flyers on site read, “For the millions lost to hate, we remember and honor your memory. It is this day, and for you, that we say, “never again!”