Inaugurated in 1998 the memorial was designed and built by architects Hirsch, Lorch, and Wandel who were very mindful of the 1991 Karol Broniatowski memorial near the stations entrance. After all, there is a war on. The Final Leg of the Filming Tour: Omaha Beach, Hill 314, and the Normandy AmericanCemetery. Until this time, persecution of Germanys Jewish minority had largely taken the form of legal restrictions designed to create unfavourable circumstances for those who the Nazi state deemed racially impure and encourage emigration, at a high cost to any who chose that route. 
The first set of trains went to concentration-camps in eastern Europe, but by the end of 1942, trains were directed to Auschwitz and Theriesenstadt. March 27th, 1945. I had no idea about this! Well, who do you think? Not weighty tomes, but maybe a picture and a note from the diary. Thank you so much! In memory of the more than 50-thousand Berlin Jews deported between October 1941 and February 1945, most of whom were sent from the Grunewald station by the Nazis to extermination camps and murdered. Since the construction of the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin in 2005, visitors to the city have had a central location where they can pay their respects to the victims of the Holocaust and contemplate the crimes of National Socialism. Research literature on the role of Deutsche Reichsbahn during the National Socialist regime comes to a unanimous conclusion: without the railway, and in particular without Deutsche Reichsbahn, the deportation of the European Jews to the extermination camps would not have been possible. Subscribe now to our free newsletter (German). Can be reached from Berlin Grunewald S-Bahn station. I am grateful for the knowledge that this haunted embarkation station existed but so sorry that I did not know when I last visited Berlin. I leave the station by the southeast exit, and turn left to ascend the ramp along the side street. The intelligent conclusion being that it was simply a measure of both with more than the fair share of the latter. From the initial stages of the Nazi takeover, with the proclamations of a new Volksgemeinschaft (Peoples Community) and the use of extrajudicial imprisonment to deal with the Gemeinschaftsfremde (Community Aliens), a system of coordinated oppression was being forged to implement official Nazi Party policy. The debate as to the intention of the increasing oppressive measures against Germanys Jewish population has been a hot topic since the end of the Second World War. Opposite is the concrete wall memorial on the left. [] Citys oldest Jewish cemetery Grunewald train station, track 17 Memorial to murdered Jews in Europe Memorial to murdered Sinti and []. The memorial consists of 186 cast steel plates embedded in the railroad ballast. Could there be a connection between this Grunewald and the Grunewald Convent established by Fr. From the fall of 1941 to the spring of 1942, approximately 10,000 German Jews were deported from here to labor and concentration camps in Riga, Warsaw, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Theresienstadt. In the case of the countrys Jewish population, this would mean theexclusion of Jews from civil service, a ban on Jewish doctors, and the Nuremburg laws of 1935 formalising the definition of who exactly would be classified as Jewish based on the maternal and paternal line. Photo: 7 Dec []. The first permanent memorial was created by the Polish artist Karol Broniatowski. I need to go there next time I am in the area. After reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, the two separate railways also merged to form Deutsche Bahn in 1994, and calls arose for the new company to acknowledge its dark past. The police and SS had assembled the people for this transport in a collection camp for Jews, which was located in the synagogue in Levetzowstrae in Berlins Moabit district. What does this mean? On 18 October 1991 a monument was inaugurated at the ramp leading to the former freight yard. I hope youll return to Berlin soon to visit not only the memorial at Grunewald station, but also other Holocaust memorials throughout the capital city. A long list of people deemed part of groups that needed to be annihilated to pacify the newly acquired territories. On these plates, the dates and destinations of all deportation trains from Berlin are noted in chronological order, as well as the number of Jews deported in each case. Zum Gedenken an die mehr als 50.000 Juden Berlins, die zwischen Oktober 1941 und Februar 1945 vorwiegend vom Gterbahnhof Grunewald aus durch den nationalsozialistischen Staat in seine Vernichtungslager deportiert und ermordet wurden. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Walking along the Gleis 17 memorial today, it is possible to discover the dates and destinations of the deportations that took place from Berlin from October 1941 all the way until the final phase of the war. Learn how your comment data is processed. The vegetation that has developed at Platform 17 over the years has been left to grow between the rails and now forms an integral part of the memorial as a symbol that no more trains will ever depart from this platform. The jury voted for the design submitted by the team of architects Hirsch, Lorch and Wandel in Saarbrcken and Frankfurt am Main. By the end of the year, Jews living in Poland would be required to wear yellow stars on the upper left part of their chest as identification a measure that would not be introduced in Germany until two years later, in September 1941. (LogOut/ More than 50-thousand Jews from Berlin were deported from this Grunewald station alone. Germany and Israel. White roses lie on the grounds of the Platform 17 Memorial in Berlin-Grunewald. What are the Brass Plaques on German Sidewalks? A breeze ripples gently, the trees reclaiming the site shimmer and whisper. Starting on 18 October 1941 until February 1945, the adjacent goods station was one of the major sites of deportation of Jews from Berlin. From this point, marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and non-Jews would be forbidden. Im pleased you now know about this poignant memorial in outer Berlin. Simultaneously, dedicated Einsatzgruppen (special task forces), coordinated by Heinrich Himmlers SS (Schutzstaffel), would be entrusted with the job of massacring civilians, members of the intelligentsia, Communists, alleged partisans, and Jews. If they could find a country willing to accept them. I didnt know about this memorial at all! more, Things to do in Berlin: Highlights of the Berlin culture programme, tips for theater, opera, concerts, movies, trade fairs and Deutsche Bahn AG hopes that the memorial will help to ensure that the crimes committed during the National Socialist regime will never be forgotten. Neither of the two German states had a central memorial to the victims of the deportations by the Reichsbahn. What ties almost all these sites together, more than their shared commemoration, is that (with the exception of the T4 memorial) they were all constructed in locations that have nothing to do with the crimes they reference. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-7vx. The reasons how Franz Brunner arrived in the United States at the time around Bismarcks Kulturkampf against the Catholic Church are likely no accident. Next time youre back in Berlin, Grunewald station is worth visiting. Whether these were part of an planned direct line towards the attempted extermination of the entire European Jewish population or whether these measures and the techniques used by the Nazi regime evolved organically, around the limitations and possibilities of the time. Now, tell me, who is going to pay for all of this? And just where do these photographs come from? The architects Nikolaus Hirsch, Wolfgang Lorch and Andrea Wandel have produced a book with further information about the memorial entitled "Gleis 17" (ISBN 978-1-933128 60-3; 19, published by Sternberg Verlag, in German). Simultaneously, dedicated. Unlike the thousands who were mercilessly sent from here to their deaths, visitors to this site can now descend back into the train station and continue to go about their lives. Beyond the limits of the Stadtbahn and one stop beyond the Ring at Westkreuz, the train pulls into the former goods and freight station at Grunewald. more, Berlin districts and suburbs with information on residential areas, infrastructure, events, local authorities and leisure activities. Learn more about the Nazi Concentration Camp industry and visit Sachsenhausen on our Invention of Hell tours. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}522921N 131541E / 52.48917N 13.26139E / 52.48917; 13.26139, "Der VBB-Tarif: Aufteilung des Verbundgebietes in Tarifwaben und Tarifbereiche", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berlin-Grunewald_station&oldid=1090880094, Buildings and structures in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Railway stations in Germany opened in 1879, Pages with no open date in Infobox station, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 31 May 2022, at 22:54. Source: Berlin.de | All texts, photographs and graphics on this site are protected by copyright. In 1985, the year that celebrated that 150th anniversary of the railway in Germany, the management boards of the railways in both West and East Germany still found it difficult to even mention this chapter of railway history. BerlinOnline/argus/flashpics/fotolia.com, Guided Tour: Lost Place Teufelsberg with US Listening Station, River Cruise "World Heritage Cruise": Palaces and Gardens of Berlin and Potsdam, Forest fire in Wannsee: 500 square metres in flames, Emergency shelter for refugees in Tegel ready to go into operation, Berlin switches off illuminations of sights and landmarks, Statistics show further increase in population in Berlin, Warning strike on Wednesday: Lufthansa cancels almost all flights from BER. You likely know that the German noun Grunewald is a compound word which is literally green forest. The word itself is generic and applicable to all sorts of places in German-speaking lands. Winning design came from the architect team Hirsch, Lorch and Wandel. (LogOut/ I hope you visit Berlin and Grunewald station soon. Get your tickets here. The Final Leg of the Filming Tour: Omaha Beach, Hill 314, and the Normandy American Cemetery. We need to be vigilant, speak up, and attempt to educate/disarm (literally) the uneducated and xenophobic/racist masses in the U.S. May these Holocaust victims memories be a blessing to those families and friends who lost them to this campaign of cruelty and murder. Things to do in Berlin this weekend and in the coming month, selected by our editors. The inscription "Never Again" is written on the floor at the Platform 17 Memorial at Grunewald station. Designed by Fancy Girl Design Studio. My brother-in-law, Raymond Flaute and his wife, my sister Rita, lived in the convent house for years before selling it. Just tracks that end abruptly and loading platforms, one spur of rails below, but no train. During the Second World War this site served as the back garden of a Prussian palace, adjacent to the site of Hitlers Fhrerbunker, but relatively untouched by the barbarism of the period. (Zum Gedenken an zehntausende jdische Brger Berlins, die ab Oktober 1941 bis Februar 1945 von hier aus durch die Nazi-Henker in die Todeslager deportiert und ermordet wurden.), No train will leave this track ever again, Deutsche Bahn, track 17 memorial: in English | auf Deutsch The last transport out of Berlin. A second part of the memorial is the vegetation that has spread between the tracks: it is a symbol that no train will ever leave the station at this track again. A TRAIN NEAR MAGDEBURG-HOLOCAUST FILM PROJECT, 1945 Manifest List-Names of those liberated at Farsleben, Germany, April 13th 1945. Change). The establishment of detention camps and ghettos across occupied Europe would see the continents Jewish population gradually segregated and corralled into these compounds as part of an organised resettlement strategy. Unlike the other similar memorials throughout Berlin it is exceptional in that this was previously a perpetrator site the cast-iron plates laid on both sides of track 17 documenting all the journeys from Berlin with the number of deportees and destinations, from exactly where these people were deported from. Until March 1945, about 180 further transports from Berlin to the ghettos followed; from August 1942, transports were also directly headed for extermination camps. (Source: Gleis 17 Memorial Berlin Grunewald), At first, the special trains consisted of passenger cars, yet from 1942 on, the Reichsbahn increasingly began using cattle cars for the deportations.. Along track 17, metal plates have been inserted, one for every transport train which took Berlins Jews to their deaths. It was originally named Hundekehle after a nearby lake and received its current name on 15 October 1884, when the former Grunewald station reopened under the name of Halensee. Platform17 is open to the public and can be reached from Berlin Grunewald S-Bahn station. I made the photos above on 7 December 2015. The members of the jury were Ignatz Bubis, Chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Heinz Drr, Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Bahn AG, Prof. Gottmann, Director of the Museum of Transport and Technology, Jerzy Kanal, Chairman of the Jewish Community in Berlin, and Dr. Salomon Korn, architect in Frankfurt am Main. By the end of the war more than 50,000 Jews had been deported through this station. Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. In 1942 trains left directly for Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camps. Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. So severe were these restrictions that by 1938, around half of the German Jewish population had left the country although those who did were often expected to contribute up to 90% of their wealth to the state as a tax upon leaving the country. A man walks past part of the Platform 17 Memorial in the Grunewald district. more. (by Karol Broniatowski, 1991), Memorial by Karol Broniatowski, 18 October 1991: bronze plaque (above) and concrete wall with hollowed out imprints of human bodies, Metal slabs surround both sides of track 17, 1st metal plate: 1st recorded train on 1941 October 18: 1251 Jews deported from Berlin to d, Last metal plate: train on record leaving 1945 March 27: 18 Jews deported from Berlin to Theresienstadt. Why I Loathe 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas'. The memorial was inaugurated on 27 January 1998 and is closely linked with the monument designed by Karol Broniatowski and erected by the Federal Land of Berlin in 1991, which deals with the journey leading up to the deportees' arrival on the platform. The last deportation to take place from Berlin left on March 27th 1945 - exactly one month later the Soviet armies would encircle the city and begin their final push into the Nazi capital. More than 50-thousand Jews from Berlin were deported from this station alone. The winning design was submitted by architects Nicolaus Hirsch, Wolfgang Lorch and Andrea Wandel. The station is a little bit out of the way (nicht im Zentrum) and Id go so far as to say that it doesnt get as much press as the big Holocaustdenkmal (Stelefeld) between Postdamer Platz and Brandenburger Tor. Many sent to their deaths in places such as Theresienstadt and Auschwitz or the ghettos of d or Riga. To mark the Reichbahns collaboration in deporting people to camps and their deaths, present-day Deutsche Bahn AG established a memorial at track 17. For many years, both the Bundesbahn in West Germany and the Reichsbahn in East Germany were unwilling to take a critical look at the role played by Deutsche Reichsbahn in the Nazi crimes against humanity. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Which way do you turn? Your email address will not be published. There is no train station that we can see. A breeze sweeps through two columns of trees, creating a low keening sound which escapes into the open space beyond. *********************************************************************. Youre not alone in not knowing about this memorial. ), would be entrusted with the job of massacring civilians, members of the intelligentsia, Communists, alleged partisans, and Jews. Where are you going? The first deportation train to leave from this station departed on October 18th 1941, with 1,013 Jews the day the systematic deportation of Berlins Jewish population began. The installation records the dates of the transports, the number of people they carried and their destinations. Since 1991, a concrete wall with negative imprints of human bodies has commemorated the long walks and marches to the deportation stations. Where the trains destination was Auschwitz Berlin Locals, Grunewald Train Station A Teachers Guide to the Holocaust. To stop and listen, the sounds could easily be human: faint shouts and cries. The entrance hall modelled on a castle gate was finished in 1899. Learn more about the history of Prussia and the life of Frederick the Great with our Glory Of Prussia tours. At top, the weather-vane is in the shape of a locomotive. Open to the elements and free of charge, the memorial is accessed either from the underground passage inside the station or from the street ramp outside; follow the signs for Mahnmal Gleis 17 (Memorial at track 17). The sisters who were buried there were moved to the cemetery at the motherhouse of the Sisters of the Precious Blood in Dayton, Ohio. However, the most infamous of the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz, notably does not appear until much later when you walk along the platform of the track to the second side with deportations starting in November 1942. Destination: Lodz Ghetto. In-fact the area surrounding this memorial also features other sites dedicated to the other groups targetted by Nazi racial policy and state violence a memorial for the Roma and Sinti, a memorial for the persecuted homosexuals, and a memorial for the first group to suffer at the hands of the Nazis on a genocidal level the mentally handicapped, the depressed, the people who were considered life unworthy of life and murdered as part of the T4 euthanasia programme. For Fathers Day: A father and son go towar. Not the same could be said for those Jews unfortunate enough to have found themselve in the territories occupied by Nazi troops following the start of the Second World War in 1939 with the invasion of Poland. We are being rocked by white Nationalism in the States, thanks to the orange-haired Hitlers (Trumps) legacy. Nearby, an unseen train is passing, the click on the tracks steadily growing louder, then trailing off slowly in the wind. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Memorial to Sinti and Roma Murdered by Nazis, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough, city-state of Berlin, Fotoeins Friday: International Holocaust Remembrance Day | Fotoeins Fotografie, International Holocaust Remembrance Day: observations from Germany | Fotoeins Fotografie. The final role of these Einsatzgruppen would be to also gather those Jews who were not murdered outright into ghettos with good railway connections where they could be held either to be slaughtered at a later date or would die as a result of the poor conditions of their confinement. The station opened on 1 August 1879 on the Wetzlarer Bahn from Berlin to Blankenheim and Wetzlar, the southwestern continuation of the Stadtbahn. Many companies including the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Imperial Rail) were actively complicit in the machinery of mass murder during Nazi rule.
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