“Holocaust” - a word that conjures up images of six million lives snuffed out by a group that felt theirs was the only race that mattered. Prior to World War II, Berlin had one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe. In 2005, Germany opened a memorial to the Jewish victims of World War II so that the horror they endured would not be forgotten. It is located just one block south of the Brandenburg Gate, on a portion of the old Berlin Wall, where its “death strip” at one time divided this city.
Discussions about establishing a memorial began in the 1980’s, led by television journalist, Lea Rosh, and historian, Eberhard Jackel (neither of whom were Jewish). By the end of that decade, a group had been established to support construction of, and collect donations for, the memorial. In 1999, the German Federal Parliament passed a resolution supporting the project. Construction of the memorial began in 2003 and was completed by mid-December of 2004. Covering 4.7 acres, the memorial consists of 2711 concrete stellae in a grid pattern on a sloping field. Underneath these stellae, is an information center that includes a timeline of the history of the “Final Solution” along with rooms dedicated to personal recollections of those who survived (as well as letters thrown from the trains by those who did not). There is also a list of three million names of Jewish martyrs obtained from archives held in Israel.
While not located on the Memorial site, but still considered as part of this rememberance, are a series of “stolpersteins” (i.e. “tripping stones”) - 4” square brass plates, inscribed with the names and life dates of Jewish victims, imbedded in the sidewalks outside of their last known residence - or, sometimes, work -prior to having been deported to concentration camps.
While we are not Jewish, we can still appreciate the importance of these memorials, “Lest, we never forget“
One block south of the Brandenburg Gate is the Holocaust Memorial.
There are innumerable interpretations as to the symbolism of the site (e.g. “a sense of order”, or “of loneliness and despair”, even resembling coffins of the victims, etc.). You will have to make up your own mind.
We found a number of these brass plaques (known as “Tripping Stones”) imbedded in the sidewalks throughout Berlin. While not part of the Holocaust Memorial site itself, they are considered part of the remembrance project as they are dedicated to those victims taken from the specific locations of the plaques and deported to the concentration camps.
From the information obtained on these specific plaques, we learned that four of the people named were deported to a concentration camp (Theresienstadt) in the Czech Republic before being sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp. The fifth person, Esther, flew to Holland in 1938, but was then interned at the Westerbork concentration camp in northeastern Netherlands,prior to being sent to the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland.
Note: Concentration camps were primarily work camps in which prisoners performed hard labor (usually until they died of exhaustion). While there, they were sorted by groups (e.g. skilled laborers, criminals, Jews, Gypsies, mentally deficient, etc), many of whom were then sent on to extermination camps.
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