• Jewish Sites of Remembrance in Große Hamburger Straße
The Große Hamburger Straße in Berlin's Mitte district was once home to not only the city's oldest Jewish cemetery, but also a Jewish old age home and a school for boys run by the Jewish community of Berlin. These institutions were either destroyed or forcibly repurposed during the National Socialist period. Several memorial plaques and monuments testify to the street's once vibrant Jewish community and honour the deported Berlin Jews.
Image: Berlin, undated, Old Jewish cemetery pior to its destruction, Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum, Berlin
Berlin, undated, Old Jewish cemetery pior to its destruction, Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum, Berlin

Image: Berlin, 2011, Detailed view of the sculpture group by Will and Mark Lammert, Stiftung Denkmal
Berlin, 2011, Detailed view of the sculpture group by Will and Mark Lammert, Stiftung Denkmal
The Jewish cemetery in Große Hamburger Straße was established by the Jewish community in 1672, making it the oldest Jewish cemetery in Berlin. About 150 years later, the cemetery reached its capacity and burials could no longer be held there. The historic tombs were preserved until 1943, when the Gestapo issued orders to destroy the graves. Slit trenches were laid out straight across the site – the resting place of over 2,600 people. The trenches were supported on the sides by destroyed gravestones. Moses Mendelssohn's tomb was one of the graves to fall victim to these measures. The famous philosopher of the Enlightenment had been buried at the Jewish cemetery in 1786.
In the spring of 1945, air raid victims and killed soldiers were buried in several mass graves on the cemetery.
Located in direct vicinity of the cemetery was a Jewish old age home, which had been founded in 1844. The Gestapo had the building cleared and remodelled in 1942, and it was henceforth used as a collection point for Berlin Jews who were to be deported. Residents of the old age home were deported to the ghetto of Theresienstadt shortly after the home was shut down. The Gestapo installed a prison for Jewish refugees and resistance fighters in the basement of the building. The neighbouring school for boys, run by the Jewish community of Berlin, met a similar fate. It too was closed by order of the Reich Main Security Office and served as a collection camp from the summer of 1942 on. The Gestapo brought Jewish families from nearby parts of Berlin to this camp – most of them were forcibly removed from the homes in the middle of the night. They were deported to ghettos and extermination camps in the east a few days later.
Image: Berlin, undated, Old Jewish cemetery pior to its destruction, Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum, Berlin
Berlin, undated, Old Jewish cemetery pior to its destruction, Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum, Berlin

Image: Berlin, 2011, Detailed view of the sculpture group by Will and Mark Lammert, Stiftung Denkmal
Berlin, 2011, Detailed view of the sculpture group by Will and Mark Lammert, Stiftung Denkmal
Over 50,000 Jews deported from Berlin perished in the Holocaust. Many of the transports were headed for the ghettos in Theresienstadt, Minsk, Riga, Kaunas and Łódź. From July 1942 on, several transports carrying Berlin Jews went directly to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other death camps.
Image: Berlin, 2011, Preserved gravestones from the old Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Berlin, 2011, Preserved gravestones from the old Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Berlin, 2011, Old Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Berlin, 2011, Old Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
In 1948, a plaque in memory of the history of the Jewish cemetery was set up by the Jewish community on Große Hamburger Straße. During the GDR era, the cemetery was declared a park complex under monumental protection. The gravestones which had been flush-mounted on the southern wall of the cemetery survived the destructions of 1943 and were eventually moved to the Weißensee Jewish cemetery in the 1980s. In 2009, they were returned to the cemetery on Große Hamburger Straße, having been previously restored. The only other gravestone on the areal is a copy similar to the original tomb of Moses Mendelssohn, erected in 1990. It is located on the same site on which the original is surmised to have stood. The remodelling of the cemetery premises in 2007 was financed by the Berlin Senate and the Jewish community. The area can again be recognised as a cemetery: the ground plan, the paths and former grave plots have been marked. In addition, a ritual washbasin and a prayer board were affixed at the entrance. An information board presents the history of the Jewish cemetery.
In 1985, a group of sculptures by Will and Mark Lammert was set up next to the entrance to the cemetery, on the site of the former Jewish old age home. Will Lammert had originally designed the sculptures for the Ravensbrück memorial, but he died in 1957 before he was able to complete them. Next to the sculpture group is a memorial stone to the deported Berlin Jews.
There is also a reminder of the boys' school of the Jewish community: an inscription above the portal at Große Hamburger Straße 27. Since 1992, the preserved building has once again become a Jewish school. A relief portrait and a memorial plaque on the school's façade honour Moses Mendelssohn. A bust of Mendelssohn, which stood in the front garden of the school, was destroyed by members of the SA in 1941.
Image: Berlin, 2011, Tombstone of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Stiftung Denkmal
Berlin, 2011, Tombstone of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Berlin, 2011, Sculpture group by Will and Mark Lammert in front of the cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Berlin, 2011, Sculpture group by Will and Mark Lammert in front of the cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Name
Jüdische Erinnerungsorte in der Großen Hamburger Straße
Address
Große Hamburger Straße
10115 Berlin
Open
Always accessible