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© Emons Verlag GmbH All rights reserved Design: Eva Kraskes, based on a conception by Lübbeke | Naumann | Thoben English translation: John Sykes Maps: Regine Spohner Basic map information from Openstreetmap, © OpenStreetMap-Mitwirkende, ODbL Printing and binding: B.O.S.S Druck and Medien GmbH, Goch Printed in Germany 2014 ISBN 978-3-95451-323-9 First edition For the latest information about emons, subscribe to our free newsletter at www.emons-verlag.de
Foreword Many places from the Nazi period in Berlin are well-known. Crowds of tourists are taken to them. But did you also know where the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem offered Nazi leaders help in murdering the Jews? Where the Nazis’ gold ingots were stored? Where swastika flags and Jewish stars of David were manufactured by the ton? Where Hitler prepared his reign of terror over a cup of tea and fruit tarts? Did you know that Hitler was a multi-millionaire in 1933 when he became chancellor, and a billionaire when he moved into his New Reich Chancellery in 1939? Where did Goebbels bathe luxuriously in marble tubs? In which cellars were opponents of the regime tortured immediately after the National Socialists took power, and where were deserters shot after the outbreak of war? There were also brave people who were not cowed and put up resistance – many more of them than you might think. Quiet heroes who concealed Jews and saved them from deportation. And people who openly protested against Nazi terror, for example the brave women in Rosenstrasse and the dean of St Hedwig’s Cathedral, who spoke out from the pulpit against murder in the guise of »euthanasia«, as well as many resistance groups. Many places associated with crimes and resistance can still be seen today, but most of them were destroyed in the war, built upon or razed to the ground. However, almost everywhere information panels or boards have been set up so that photos and texts can remind us of what once happened there. This book records these sites. It takes you to places that should never be forgotten. Paul Kohl, who set out to search
111 Places 1_ Alois’ Restaurant Hitler’s half-brother served the SA and SS | 10
2_ The Anhalt Station Passenger carriage, third class to Theresienstadt | 12
3_ Arno Breker’s Studio The artist who made Teutonic giants | 14
4_ The Arsenal Another failed attempt to kill Hitler | 16
5_ The Asset Realisation Office Appropriating Jewish property for »Aryans« | 18
6_ Barnimstrasse Women’s Prison Last stop before decapitation | 20
7_ Berlin Cathedral Extremely suitable for Nazi pomp | 22
8_ Berlin’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery The SS played football with skulls | 24
9_ Black Else Blochwitz An air-raid warden who looked for cellars to hide refugees | 26
10_ The Bonhoeffer-Haus The Church must »block the spokes in the wheel« | 28
11_ The Book-Burning Student arsonists | 30
12_ Brain Research in Berlin-Buch Preserved brains for Nazi science | 32
13_ The Central Service Office for Jews Deployment for forced labour | 34
14_ Charlottenburg’s Red Neighbourhood Richard Hüttig and his defence squads | 36
15_ The Cellars in Wielandstrasse The caretaker built hiding places in two houses | 38
16_ Clou Ballroom and Concert Hall From a palace of pleasure to a transit camp for deportation | 40
17_ The Columbia-Haus The screams could be heard outside | 42
18_ The Comedian Harmonists Veronica, the ban is here | 44
19_ The Court Prison in Köpenick The »Köpenick week of blood« – the massacre by the SA | 46
20_ The Deputy of the »Führer« Rudolf Hess flew off, Martin Bormann took cyanide | 48
21_ The Deutsche Reichsbahn The deportation trains ran on time | 50
22_ The Deutsche Reichsbank Gold in the bank vaults | 52
23_ Eichmann’s Jewish Department IV B 4 The man who organised the deportations | 54
24_ The »European Union« For a liberated, socialist Europe | 56
25_ The Euthanasia Headquarters Cover name: »Aktion T4« | 58
26_ Friedrichstrasse Station Evacuation of children to England | 60
27_ The Führer School Expert training for mass murder | 62
28_ The »Führer’s« Photographer Heinrich Hoffmann’s picture agency | 64
29_ Geitel & Co. Flag Factory A production line for yellow stars and swastikas | 66
30_ The General Building Inspector Responsible for large-scale buildings, deportation, concentration camps, arms | 68
31_ George Grosz Flees The SA came too late, but won | 70
32_ The Gestapo If you are in their files, you are lost | 72
33_ Goebbels’ City Mansion Luxury paid for by the state, and Remer’s part in the coup | 74
34_ The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Amin al-Husseini calls for the »final solution« | 76
35_ The »Great Hall« Workers’ Estate Forced labour for »Germania«, the new capital city | 78
36_ Greater German Radio German spirit in the »Brown House« | 80
37_ Grunewald Station To Auschwitz: adults 25 reichsmarks, children half price | 82
38_ The »gypsy camp« in Marzahn Berlin was »gypsy-free« for the Olympic Games | 84
39_ Hausvogteiplatz The eradication of the Jewish fashion and clothing business | 86
40_ The Heilmann Family The father was murdered in a concentration camp, the family continued the fight | 88
41_ The Herbert Baum Group Communist Jews light a beacon | 90
42_ The High Command of the Armed Forces Headquarters for ordering occupation, exploitation and annihilation | 92
43_ Hitler’s Bunker The end came in a concrete cave | 94
44_ The Hotel Kaiserhof Luxurious accommodation for Hitler | 96
45_ Humboldthain Flak Tower Artillery at the top – ammunition and air-raid shelters below | 98
46_ The Institute for Racial Hygiene Mengele supplied body parts from Auschwitz | 100
47_ The Jewish Boys’ School From a free spirit to a transit camp | 102
48_ The Jewish Cultural League Monitored, harassed, closed down | 104
49_ The Jewish Hospital A last refuge, in vain | 106
50_ The Jewish Old People’s Home From the table and bed to the gas chamber | 108
51_ The Jewish Orphanage To England or death | 110
52_ The Karl-Liebknecht-Haus From the Communist Party to Horst Wessel | 112
53_ Kreuzberg Fire Station The fire brigade burned works of art | 114
54_ The Kroll Opera Music, protest, acclamation | 116
55_ Levetzowstrasse Transit Camp Deportation when 1000 persons have been rounded up | 118
56_ The Lustgarten Parades, cheering, persecution, »Soviet paradise« | 120
57_ Maria, Countess von Maltzan Taking Jews to freedom in freight trucks | 122
58_ The Martin Luther Memorial Church The cross and swastika of the »German Christians« | 124
59_ The Metropol-Theater Conquer the world with a thunderbolt | 126
60_ The Military Engineers’ School Unconditional surrender in Karlshorst | 128
61_ Moabit Freight Station Deported in furniture trucks | 130
62_ Moabit-West Tax Office Pay to survive | 132
63_ Murellenberg Where pacifists were shot | 134
64_ The New Reich Chancellery An ostentatious building for a billionaire | 136
65_ The New Synagogue A police officer saved a place of worship | 138
66_ The Old Reich Chancellery A millionaire moves in | 140
67_ Organisation Todt The fatal crash of the »Führer’s« critic | 142
68_ The Palestine Office Between the Gestapo and the British Mandate | 144
69_ The Pallasstrasse Bunker Military telecommunications remained unprotected | 146
70_ The Passport Forger New papers thanks to a magnifying glass, Japan brush and hole-punch | 148
71_ The Pastor of Tegel and Plötzensee Harald Poelchau helped until the very last minute | 150
72_ The People’s Court 5243 death sentences »In the Name of the German People« | 152
73_ The Place of Execution in Plötzensee The guillotine never rested in the shed | 154
74_ The Police Headquarters The central prison for »protective arrest« | 156
75_ The Quakers The Religious Society of Friends | 158
76_ Reich Air Ministry Hermann Göring, terrorist and bon viveur | 160
77_ The Reich Bridal School Training happy German housewives | 162
78_ The Reich Finance Ministry Expenditure on war – income from theft | 164
79_ The Reich Foreign Ministry A wine wholesaler ran the Shoah | 166
80_ The Reich Main Security Office Murder HQ to secure the Reich | 168
81_ The Reich Party Rally Film Company Leni Riefenstahl’s »unpolitical« art for the regime of terror | 170
82_ The Reich Propaganda Ministry Hell’s kitchen, where the devil cooked | 172
83_ The Reich War Court Death sentences for pacifists by the hundred | 174
84_ The Reichsführer-SS A career with the death’s head | 176
85_ The Reichstag A convenient fire | 178
86_ The »Red Orchestra« »Pianists« typed codes to Moscow | 180
87_ The Research Department for Racial Hygiene »Mobile task forces« to register Sinti and Roma | 182
88_ The Robert Koch Hospital Resistance over a cup of coffee – with SS doctors next door | 184
89_ The SA Prison in Papestrasse One of many places of torture | 186
90_ The Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organisation »Hitler out – end the war!« | 188
91_ Schöneweide Work Camp Huts for Speer and Sachsenhausen concentration camp | 190
92_ Schwanenwerder An island paradise for Nazi Party leaders | 192
93_ The Sisterly Charity Elisabeth and Julie Abegg helped 80 persecuted persons | 194
94_ The Social Democrats’ Hall Prince August Wilhelm was satisfied with the torture | 196
95_ The Sportpalast Whipping up the audience for the »final victory« | 198
96_ The SS Bodyguard for Adolf Hitler For duties at receptions, parades and mass murder | 200
97_ The SS Chief Economic Office A bureaucracy for exploitation to death | 202
98_ St Hedwig’s Cathedral The cathedral dean preached protest | 204
99_ Stauffenberg’s Office Get rid of the boss, not National Socialism | 206
100_ »Strength Through Joy« Recreation under the sign of the swastika | 208
101_ The Synagogue in Fasanenstrasse Keep the fire away from German houses | 210
102_ Teves Engineering Works Foreman Daene protected women in forced labour | 212
103_ The Uhrig Organisation Resistance, arrest, resistance, decapitation | 214
104_ »Uncle Emil« Ruth Andreas-Friedrich’s secret network | 216
105_ The Wannsee Villa The agenda was the »final solution to the Jewish question« | 218
106_ Weissensee Jewish Cemetery Suicide before deportation | 220
107_ The Weser Aircraft Construction Company Forced labourers repaired Stukas | 222
108_ The Wittenau Clinics »Unofficial euthanasia« by the nursing staff | 224
109_ The Women’s Protest »Give us our husbands back!« | 226
110_ Workshop for the Blind Otto Weidt saves his brush makers | 228
111_ Wuhlheide Work Education Camp Official causes of death: »heart«, »circulation«, »lung« | 230
1__ Alois’ Restaurant Hitler’s half-brother served the SA and SS Alois Hitler (1882 – 1956), Adolf Hitler’s half-brother, worked as a waiter in Linz in Austria and was given prison sentences for repeated theft. After his release he emigrated to Dublin and Liverpool, did casual work in pubs and earned money through confidence tricks and fraud. After that he fled to London with his young mistress and fathered a son. He left them both, married a new lover in Hamburg in 1919 with forged documents, again became father of son, and eked out a living by selling razor blades and breeding chickens. In 1924 Alois was exposed as a bigamist. Divorce from his first wife kept him out of prison. In 1926 he joined the Nazi Party, but his half-brother refused to allow him to remain a member, and he had to resign. In 1927 Alois worked as a waiter at Weinhaus Huth on Potsdamer Platz, and in the mid-1930s opened a wine shop and tavern at 5 Leonhardtstrasse in Charlottenburg. Shortly afterwards he coerced the Jewish owners of the house at 3 Wittenbergplatz to sell out, had the Jews who were living there beaten up, and in 1937 opened his restaurant, called Alois, in the building. It soon became a rendezvous for Nazi circles, especially for SA and SS thugs. The specialities on its extensive menu were »ragout fin in mussels« and »spicy meat salad«, costing one reichsmark. Only Adolf Hitler stayed away. In all these years Alois had scarcely any contact to his half-brother, except for a few short meetings at which Hitler gave him a violent dressingdown. When Alois received a call to join the resistance by anonymous post from the Red Orchestra group, he took it to the Gestapo and thus helped to get the members of this resistance circle arrested and executed. Shortly before the end of the war, he and his wife Hedwig fled to Hamburg, where he changed his name to Hiller. In 1956 Alois Hiller died in Hamburg. 10
Address Wittenbergplatz 3, 10789 Berlin-Schรถneberg | Transport U 1, U 2, U 3, bus M 19, M 46 to Wittenbergplatz | Today The building is still standing, and is now occupied by the Italian restaurant Mola in place of Alois.
2__ The Anhalt Station Passenger carriage, third class to Theresienstadt As always, the platforms of the Anhalter Bahnhof were a busy scene as early as 5am on 2 June 1942. Passengers with their luggage hurried along the trains, some of them followed by porters with trolleys piled high. In the bustle, no-one noticed that armed members of the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service) and police on platform 1 were ordering old people to go to the last third-class carriage, which had been coupled to the train going to Karlsbad Spa. They were residents of the Jewish old people’s home in Grosse Hamburger Strasse (see page 108), and all had the same yellow star on their clothes. They were allowed to take the following items on the journey: 50 reichsmarks, a complete set of clothing with proper shoes, a suitcase, bedding and a blanket, crockery and a spoon, food for eight days. Time of departure: 6.07am. This was the first of 116 »transports of the elderly« which by March 1945 had taken 9655 persons from this station to Theresienstadt near Prague as part of the »resettlement« to the »old persons’ ghetto«. The Theresienstadt »transit camp« was only an intermediate stage on the way to the extermination camps further east, so the deported persons travelled with normal passengers as far as Prague. On the other side of the station, the Führer’s special train stood in waiting at all times, watched by his SS bodyguard. From July 1942, groups of 100 persons at a time were »evacuated« from Jewish old persons’ homes to Theresienstadt concentration camp. According to the instructions of Eichmann’s Jewish Department IV B 4, two third-class carriages were attached to the express trains to Dresden and Prague. The larger transports of 1000 and more persons departed from Grunewald Station (see page 82) and Moabit freight station (see page 130). In early February 1945, Allied air raids severely damaged the Anhalter Bahnhof. The ruins were blown up in 1959. Today only part of the main entrance still stands, a devastated fragment. 12
Address Askanischer Platz, 10963 Berlin-Kreuzberg | Transport S 1, S 2, S 25 to Anhalter Bahnhof | Today Only a portico remains of what was once the largest railway terminus in Europe. Next to it a memorial panel with photos and an information text has been set up.
3__ Arno Breker’s Studio The artist who made Teutonic giants »The Decathlete« and »Victorious Woman« in 1936 for the Olympic stadium, the Party as »Torchbearer«, the Wehrmacht as »Swordbearer«, »Genius« and »Victor« in 1939 for the New Reich Chancellery, and »The Avenger«, »Comrades«, »Annihilation« and »Sacrifice«, made in 1940 – these sculptures and reliefs were to Hitler’s taste. They embody the healthy »Aryan« and the ideals of racial theory. Arno Breker (1900 – 91) »cannot get enough muscles« in his own words. His heroic monumental figures were to be a manifestation of the new art of the »Thousand-Year Reich« in contrast to the despised »Degenerate Art«. Arno Breker’s meteoric career began in Nazi Germany in 1936. The support of Hitler and Goebbels brought him numerous state commissions, and he collaborated closely with Albert Speer. Breker was to sculpt colossal stone statues for the remodelling of Berlin as Germania, capital of the »Great Germanic Reich«. In the Fine Arts section of Goebbels’ Reich Chamber of Arts, he decided which artists would get commissions and who would be allowed to exhibit. In 1939 he moved into a new home at Grunewalder Königsallee 65, a house that had belonged to Walter Rathenau (murdered in 1922) and had been »Aryanised«. On his 40th birthday in 1940 Hitler presented him with a huge area of land including a mansion and gigantic sculpture workshops in Wriezen to the east of Berlin – so that he could sculpt his monstrous figures for the Party rallies in Nuremberg and for »Germania«. 50 prisoners of war and forced labourers were recruited to assist him. A large-scale workshop on Käuzchensteig in Berlin-Dahlem was also available to him. Categorised as a »fellow-traveller« in the denazification process, he pursued a successful career after the war, making bronze busts of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, the economics minister Ludwig Erhard and the chairman of Deutsche Bank, Hermann Josef Abs. 14
Address Käuzchensteig 10, 14195 Berlin-Dahlem | Transport Bus 115 to Finkenstrasse| Today Breker’s workshop is the seat of a foundation, the Bernhard-Heiliger-Stiftung, and the Brücke-Museum.
4__ The Arsenal Another failed attempt to kill Hitler 21 March 1943: the army museum in the Zeughaus (Arsenal). Hitler announced the opening of an exhibition of captured Soviet weapons in the Baroque-style Arsenal on »Heroes’ Commemoration Day«. On a 20-minute tour Lieutenant-Colonel Rudolf-Christoph, Baron von Gersdorff (1905 – 80), an intelligence officer in the Central Army Group, was the expert chosen to explain the artillery and Katyusha multiple rocket launchers to the »Führer«. 27 attempts to assassinate Hitler had already failed. Von Gersdorff now resolved to take this opportunity to blow himself up along with Hitler. On the night of 20 – 21 March he received two British Clam mines from Colonel Henning von Tresckow via his orderly Fabian von Schlabrendorff. These shell-shaped limpet mines measured 14 by 7 by 4 centimetres and fitted easily in a coat pocket. The explosive consisted of Tetryl and TNT, and a single mine was capable of piercing a thick steel plate. However, when they were passed to Gersdorff in his hotel the detonators were missing. It was not possible to get hold of a suitable detonator by noon on the next day. From old stocks Gersdorff still possessed English acid detonators, which he fitted to the mines. Hitler arrived very late at about 1pm, made a surprisingly short speech for Heroes’ Commemoration Day in the courtyard, where all the leading members of the Nazi regime, including Himmler, Göring and Goebbels, were present, and then went to the exhibition entrance. As Gersdorff had to raise his right arm to salute, he was able to activate only the mine in his left pocket by crushing the phial of acid. At this instant Hitler turned round and, without even glancing at the captured weaponry, hurried outside to inspect a parade in front of the Neue Wache guardhouse on Unter den Linden. At the last moment Gersdorff succeeded in defusing the mine in the toilet. 16
Address Deutsches Historisches Museum, Unter den Linden 2, 10117 Berlin-Mitte | Transport U 6, S 1, S 2, S 5, S 7, S 25, S 75 to Friedrichstrasse, bus 100, 200 to Staatsoper | Today The courtyard where the assassination was to have taken place has been restored with a few alterations. There is an information panel at the entrance. Open Mon – Sun 10am – 6pm, www.dhm.de.
5__ The Asset Realisation Office Appropriating Jewish property for »Aryans«
After the deportation of Jews began in October 1941, the Reich finance minister gave instructions to the Berlin president of finance in early November 1941 to confiscate the property that they left behind and make use of it under the code name »Aktion 3«. For this purpose the president of finance set up the »Vermögensverwertungsstelle« (Asset Realisation Office) at Alt-Moabit 143 in late 1941. According to the law, Jews crossed the Reich borders when they were deported to ghettos and extermination camps, and thus lost their German citizenship. As in bureaucratic terminology they had »transferred their place of residence abroad«, all the property that they left behind was confiscated and passed into the possession of the Reich. Before Jews were deported, the Asset Realisation Office in cooperation with local tax offices and the Gestapo recorded their entire household goods and assets. In the Asset Realisation Office for Berlin-Brandenburg alone, this legalised theft was recorded in more than 40,000 files. After their »evacuation« the property of Jews was auctioned to the people of Berlin or handed over the second-hand dealers, who had to part with 70 per cent of the value when they made a sale. Housing was handed to the local authorities. Money in bank accounts, shares and bonds, pensions and insurance policies, including burial insurance, was given to the Reich Treasury. Plots of land were made over to the Real Estate Office. Even the wages due to Jewish workers had to be paid to the Asset Realisation Office by their employers. Through the merger of the finance offices of Berlin and Brandenburg in April 1942, from this time the Asset Realisation Office was also responsible for making use of the property of Jews deported from Brandenburg. 18
Address Alt-Moabit 143, 10557 Berlin-Moabit | Transport S 5, S 7 to Hauptbahnhof, bus M 85 to Bundeskanzleramt, then 10 minutes’ walk | Today The site is wasteland, partly overgrown. A memorial in Elisabeth-Abegg-Strasse next to Tiergarten fire station refers to the Asset Realisation Office.
6__ Barnimstrasse Women’s Prison Last stop before decapitation The women’s prison at Barnimstrasse 10 in Berlin-Friedrichshain was used at an early date for interrogating and punishing political prisoners. During the Nazi period, women waited in the cells here for their trials at the Volksgerichtshof (People’s Court), which usually ended in a death sentence. After the trials, the Barnimstrasse prison was the last stop before execution in Plötzensee (see page 154) for 300 women, including many from Herbert Baum’s resistance group, the Red Orchestra group and the organisation connected with Saefkow, Jacob and Bästlein. The jail had a normal capacity of 420 inmates. In 1943 more than 1400 women were crammed into the cells. Death sentences were passed for distributing leaflets and for petty offences by persons »harmful to the people«, for helping the persecuted, for listening to foreign radio broadcasts, for expressing doubts about the »final victory« and »undermining military strength«, as in the case of Emmy Zehden, a 44-year-old who delivered newspapers. The verdict: »Between 1940 and 1942 the accused Zehden provided a refuge and food in Berlin for three persons, enabling them to avoid military service.« Emmy Zehden was beheaded on 9 June 1944 in Plötzensee. The following costs were incurred for carrying out the death sentence: 120 reichsmarks for the executioner and his assistants, 2.55 reichsmarks for transport to Plötzensee, 12.40 reichsmarks for the driver’s journey time. Total: 134.95 reichsmarks. To this were added charges for food in prison during her incarceration and the trial at the People’s Court. These costs were charged in full to the families of the executed persons. The building remained in use as a women’s prison after 1945 and was demolished in 1974. 20
Address Barnimstrasse 10, at the corner of Weinstrasse, 10249 Berlin-Friedrichshain | Transport S 5, S 7, S 75, U 2, U 8 to Alexanderplatz, then 20 minutes’ walk, bus 142, 200, to Mollstrasse, Otto-Braun-Strasse | Today Friedrichshain local authority uses the site for traffic training for children. A board with photos and texts about the women’s prison stands at the corner of Barnimstrasse and Weinstrasse.
7__ Berlin Cathedral Extremely suitable for Nazi pomp In the Berliner Dom, the Protestant cathedral on the Lustgarten, an extremely pompous funeral was held on 5 February 1933: a National Socialist ritual around the coffin of Hans Maikowsky, the 25-yearold leader of »SA-Sturm 33 Charlottenburg«. In a state ceremony he was mourned as a »martyr of the movement« and »national hero«. Maikowsky and his SA Brownshirts had murdered several opponents of the regime. On 30 January 1933, after a torchlight procession, he was accidentally shot by an SA comrade in a fight with Communists in Wallstrasse (now Zillestrasse) in Charlottenburg. The Communists were blamed for his death. The entire Nazi Party leadership, Hitler to the fore, was present at the funeral. Speeches were made by the Protestant Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller, who was a fanatical National Socialist, Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels. The cathedral was later also the scene of an equally pompous but happier ceremony: on 10 April 1935 Hermann Göring married the actress Emmy Sonnemann. The Party and city of Berlin had prepared for this event for three months as if it were a glorious royal wedding. Hitler was one of the marriage witnesses in the registry office, and Reich Bishop Müller officiated at the church wedding in the cathedral. The bride, a divorcee, appeared in a radiant white wedding dress, while Göring wore a gala uniform designed by himself with medals, a sash and a silver sabre. The interior of the church was a sea of flowers. The ceremony was attended by the whole government, the diplomatic corps and the German aristocracy. As the bridal procession left the cathedral, a guard of honour from the air force lined up with drawn swords, and the wedding guests then proceeded to the Hotel Kaiserhof (see page 96) for a reception and dinner. At the end of May 1944 bombs destroyed the domed cathedral. It was not fully restored and reconsecrated until 1993. 22
Address Am Lustgarten, 10178 Berlin-Mitte | Transport S 5, S 7, S 75 to Hackescher Markt, bus 100, 200 to Lustgarten | Today The interior of the cathedral has impressive fittings and decorations. It is worth visiting the family burial crypt of the Hohenzollern royal family and climbing the dome for a view of central Berlin.
8__ Berlin’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery The SS played football with skulls
The oldest Jewish cemetery in Berlin lay behind the old people’s home at 26 Grosse Hamburger Strasse (see page 108) in Berlin-Mitte district. Today it is easy to pass this unassuming park without noticing it. It was once a cemetery where some 12,000 members of Berlin’s first Jewish community were buried between 1672 and 1827. One of them was the notable philosopher and forerunner of Jewish emancipation Moses Mendelssohn (1729 – 86). Almost all gravestones were low, nearly uniform in design and made from sandstone. This plainness and uniformity symbolised the equality in death of rich and poor alike. Nevertheless, here too some monumental tombs stood out from the rest. After it was closed in 1827, the cemetery served as a park for the residents of Berlin’s first home for the elderly, which was built two years later. To replace it, a Jewish place of burial was opened in Schönhauser Allee. On the orders of the Gestapo, SS forces completely destroyed the cemetery in 1943. They smashed thousands of gravestones to pieces, threw out bones and played football with skulls. The SS also dug a trench through the cemetery for protection against air raids, and shored it up with the remains of the gravestones. Jews waiting to be deported in the former old persons’ home, which had become a detention camp, could watch all of this through the barred windows at the back. In April 1945 burials took place in the cemetery once again: mass graves were dug for almost 2500 soldiers of the German armed forces and civilians who had been killed by bombing raids. There were also graves for those who hung white bed sheets out of their windows in the last days of the war, and were shot by the SS. After 1970 the site was levelled, but old gravestones can still be seen in the cemetery wall. 24
Address Grosse Hamburger Strasse 26, 10115 Berlin-Mitte | Transport S 5, S 7, S 75 to Hackescher Markt, S 1, S 2, S 25 to Oranienburger Strasse, U 8 to Weinmeisterstrasse | Today The destroyed cemetery is a commemorative site. A reconstructed gravestone marks the spot where Moses Mendelssohn was buried.
9__ Black Else Blochwitz An air-raid warden who looked for cellars to hide refugees In the late 1920s the writer Else Blochwitz (1899 – 1992) wrote articles expressing vehement opposition to the National Socialists. The Gauleiter of Berlin, Josef Goebbels, liked her spirited publications so much that he made her an offer of collaboration, but she turned his approach down. Offended, Goebbels set spies to keep an eye on her. As the persecution of Jews increased after the passing of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 she felt an even stronger obligation to help Jews. The start of her activity was to take in two young sisters, Herta and Käthe Arndt, allegedly as subtenants, in her flat at Kurfürstendamm 177. Their mother Rosalie lived in a different hiding place and spent the days with her daughters. Else Blochwitz provided food, clothing and money for the three of them, and helped Käthe Arndt to emigrate to North Borneo in 1938. Herta’s attempt to flee abroad was unsuccessful, and she was made to do forced labour for Siemens in Spandau. In November 1941 Herta and her mother Rosalie were deported to Minsk. Rosalie was shot in Minsk along with thousands of other Jews, and Herta met her death in the gas chambers in Lublin. »Black« Else Blochwitz continued to hide Jews in her flat – »Black« was her cover name, and she introduced herself using only this appellation. She could offer accommodation for only one night or a week to most of the Jews whom she took in. In order to find places of concealment in cellars for them, she trained as an air-raid warden, and took provisions to the refugees in their hideouts. It is not known how many she helped, but the names of the families Löwenstein and Levin, a couple called Ruschin, Walter Marx, Dora Kanner, Marga Nebel and Rita Grabowski have been recorded. Black Else Blochwitz survived the war, and afterwards published a volume of her poems entitled »Flügel im Wind« (Wings in the Wind). 26
Address Kurf端rstendamm 177, 10707 Berlin-Charlottenburg | Transport U 7 to Adenauerplatz, bus 101 to Olivaer Platz | Today Number 177 is a modern building now, and there is no plaque to commemorate Black Else Blochwitz.
10__ The Bonhoeffer-Haus The Church must »block the spokes in the wheel« Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 45), a Protestant pastor and theologian, son of the psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Bonhoeffer, issued a warning about the »Führer« in a radio talk on 1 February 1933. The broadcast was taken off the air. He wrote in »The Church and the Jewish Question« that it was a Christian duty to support persecuted Jews. As a reaction to the nationalist, anti-Semitic Protestant group called »Deutsche Christen« (German Christians), Bonhoeffer and others founded the oppositional Confessing Church in May 1934. In his seminary in Finkenwalde near Stettin on the Baltic Sea he trained preachers for the Confessing Church. It was not long before the Gestapo closed his seminary and prohibited him from teaching or speaking in public. Bonhoeffer, however, was not willing to be silenced. His brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi had been on the staff of the Wehrmacht Supreme Command since 1939 in Wilhelm Canaris’ department for military intelligence, where he and dissident army officers plotted to overthrow Hitler. On behalf of Dohnanyi, Bonhoeffer travelled to Switzerland, Norway and Sweden in 1941 and 1942 to make contacts for the planned coup. For years, Bonhoeffer took part in conspiratorial meetings with members of his family and friends at Marienburger Allee 43 in Charlottenburg. Here the Gestapo arrested him on 5 April 1943, took him to the military prison in Tegel and interrogated him over a two-year period on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. In February 1945 he was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp and the following month to Flossenbürg concentration camp. On 8 April 1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was condemned to death for high treason by an SS court martial and hanged the following morning. His brother Klaus and his brothers-in-law Rüdiger Schleicher and von Dohnanyi, both members of the resistance movement, were also executed in April 1945. 28
Address Marienburger Allee 43, 14055 Berlin-Charlottenburg | Transport S 5, bus M 49, X 34, X 49 to Heerstrasse S-Bahn station, then 10 minutes’ walk | Today The BonhoefferHaus is a meeting place and memorial site with a permanent exhibition about his life and work. Tel. 030 / 3019161, www.bonhoeffer-haus-berlin.de.