On the 10th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Nariman House, one of the several establishments that were targeted by the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, will be declared a memorial and rechristened as Nariman Light House.
Three floors of the building have been fashioned as a museum with the names of all 227 people who lost their lives being put up for visitors to pay their respects to. The first phase of the memorial will be thrown open to visitors on Monday.
Rabbi Israel Kozlovskyl made the announcement on Sunday that the Nariman House will be rechristened as Nariman Light House. Nariman House is a centre for the Jewish Chabad movement.
The memorial promises to be open to all “to feel and live”.
First phase of the memorial will be dedicated to all those who lost their lives in the deadly attacks that brought the commercial capital of the country to its knees.
The second phase of the memorial is the fifth floor of the house where Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg lived with his wife, Rivka and son, Moshe. The entire floor has been designed in pristine white and has been reconstructed to make it look exactly how it used to, before the fateful night 10 years ago.
On November 26, 2008, two of the ten terrorists who had entered Mumbai raided Nariman House and killed its four residents, including Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife. Their toddler son Moshe was saved by his Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel.
Among the prominent displays here will be Moshe’s room, the kitchen, bedroom, living room, apartment, entrance, hallway library and the common room.
“The fifth floor where the Holtzberg family lived will be turned back into a house with a kitchen, a living room and everything to reflect the Jewish way of life. On the fourth floor there will be six different rooms projecting different things and also give an overall view to the visitors,” said Kozlovskyl.
Soon, a website will be launched for people to apply to visit the Nariman Light House. Visitors will be subject to verifications and security checks while there will be no charges on the visits.
On the fourth floor, visitors will enter through a scorched and broken door, just how it was after the attack.
The next room will bear tales of the 2008 attacks and will be dedicated to stories of terror attacks across the world.