Since 1987, a memorial on the Putlitzbrücke (Putlitz bridge), which connects the districts of Moabit and Wedding, has commemorated the 30,000 Berlin Jews who were deported from the nearby Moabit freight depot.
In autumn 1941, the Gestapo began deporting Jews from Berlin to ghettos and extermination sites in the occupied territories in the east. At first, the trains departed from the Grunewald train station; from 1942 on, the more centrally located train stations Anhalter Bahnhof as well as the Moabit freight depot were used. Probably from March 1942 on – at the latest from August onwards – most transports departed from Moabit. The train station was located only two kilometres from the synagogue in Levetzowstraße, where the Gestapo had set up a collection camp for Berlin Jews and deportation lists were compiled. From there, the police and SS chased the Jews to the ramp at the edge of the station, frequently beating them with truncheons and whips, and forced them to board the special trains of the German state railway. At the beginning, the trains consisted of old passenger cars, however, from 1942 on, the Reichsbahn increasingly used freight cars for the deportations.
Over 50,000 of the Jews deported from Berlin did not survive the war. Many of the transports went to the ghettos of Theresienstadt, Minsk, Riga, Kaunas (Russian: Kovno) and Łódź. From July 1942 on, many of the transports from Berlin went directly to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other extermination camps.
The Deportation Memorial came about on the initiative of the Senate of West Berlin. The Putlitzbrücke was chosen for the location due to the fact that the premises of the former freight depot can be overlooked from there. Parts of platform 69 can still be seen – it is from here and two other platforms that the deportation trains departed. The memorial, which was dedicated in 1987, consists of a 2,5 metre large sculpture by Volkmar Haase, the front part of which resembles a gravestone. Behind it the memorial extends upwards into a staircase-like shape. Inscribed on an additional plaque are the words: »Steps which are no longer steps – Stairs which are no longer stairs – Symbol of a journey which was no longer a journey […]«.
The memorial has been vandalised on several occasions. In 1992, it was damaged so severely that it had to be taken down and restored. The state of Berlin is planning to set up a memorial site together with the Foundation Topography of Terror on the nearby Quitzowstraße. In 2007, a first memorial stele was set up in Quitzowstraße pointing out the route to the deportation ramp at the freight depot.
The memorial has been vandalised on several occasions. In 1992, it was damaged so severely that it had to be taken down and restored. The state of Berlin is planning to set up a memorial site together with the Foundation Topography of Terror on the nearby Quitzowstraße. In 2007, a first memorial stele was set up in Quitzowstraße pointing out the route to the deportation ramp at the freight depot.
- Name
- Deportationsmahnmal Putlitzbrücke
- Address
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Putlitzbrücke
10559 Berlin - Open
- Accessible at all times