Jewish memorials in Berlin | All media content | DW | 11.05.2018

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Jewish memorials in Berlin

The Holocaust may have been more than eight decades ago, but it is not forgotten. Large and small memorials all over the German capital commemorate the crimes of the Nazi Third Reich.

  • Deutschland, Berlin, Holocaust-Mahnmal (picture-alliance/Schoening)

    The Holocaust Memorial

    A huge field of stelae slabs in the center of the German capital was designed by New York architect Peter Eisenmann. Almost 3,000 stone blocks commemorate the six million Jewish people from all over Europe who were murdered by the National Socialists.

  • Stolpersteine (DW/T.Walker)

    Stumbling Blocks

    These brass plates are very small, only 10 by 10 centimeters (3.9 x 3.9 inches). You can find them everywhere on the sidewalks in Berlin. The stumbling blocks are a reminder of people who lived in the adjacent houses before they were deported by the Nazis. In total there are more than 7,000 of these stumbling blocks in Berlin.

  • Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz in Berlin (picture-alliance/dpa)

    The Wannsee Conference House

    Fifteen high-ranking Nazi officials met in this villa on the Wannsee Lake on January 20, 1942 to discuss the systematic murder of European Jews which they called the "final solution to the Jewish question". Today the house is a memorial. It informs about the unimaginable dimension of the genocide that was decided here.

  • Mahnmal Gleis 17 (imago/IPON)

    Track 17 Memorial

    White roses on track 17 at Grunewald station remember the more than 50,000 Berlin Jews who were sent to their deaths from here. 186 steel plates show the date, destination and number of deportees. The first train went to the Litzmannstadt ghetto (Łódź) on 18 October 1941, the last train to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on January 5, 1945.

  • Deutschland Berlin Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt (picture-alliance/Arco Images)

    Otto Weidt's Workshop for the Blind

    Today, the Hackesche Höfe in Berlin Mitte are mentioned in every travel guide. They are a backyard labyrinth in which many Jewish people lived and worked - for example in the brush factory of the German entrepreneur Otto Weidt. During the Nazi era he employed many blind and deaf Jews and saved them from deportation and death. The workshop of the blind is now a museum.

  • Deutschland Berlin - Hausvogteiplatz (picture-alliance/dpa/J. Kalaene)

    Fashion Center Hausvogteiplatz

    The heart of Berlin's fashion metropolis once beat here. A memorial sign made of high mirrors recalls the Jewish fashion designers and stylists who made clothes for the whole of Europe at Hausvogteiplatz. The National Socialists expropriated the Jewish owners and handed over the fashion stores to Aryan employees. Berlin's fashion center was irretrievably destroyed during the Second World War.

  • Jüdisches Leben in Berlin (DW)

    Memorial at Koppenplatz

    Before the Holocaust, 173,000 Jews lived in Berlin, in 1945 there were only 9,000. The monument "Der verlassene Raum" (The Deserted Room) is located in the middle of the Koppenplatz residential area. It is a reminder of the Jewish citizens who were taken from their homes without warning and never returned.

  • Jüdisches Museum Berlin (AP)

    The Jewish Museum

    Architect Daniel Libeskind chose a dramatic design: viewed from above, the building looks like a broken Star of David. The Jewish Museum is one of the most visited museums in Berlin, offering an overview of the turbulent German-Jewish history.

  • Jüdische Kultur in Berlin (Renate Pelzl)

    Weissensee Jewish Cemetery

    There are still eight remaining Jewish cemeteries in Berlin, the largest of them in the Weissensee district. With over 115,000 graves it is the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. Many persecuted Jews hid in the complex premises during the Nazi era. On May 11, 1945, only three days after the end of the Second World War, the first Jewish service was held here.

  • Jüdische Kultur in Berlin (Renate Pelzl)

    The New Synagogue

    When the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse was first consecrated in 1866 it was considered the largest and most magnificent synagogue in Germany. It burned down during the Second World War. In 1995 the reconstructed synagogue was inaugurated. Since then, the 50-meter-high golden dome once again dominates Berlin's city-scape.


  • Deutschland, Berlin, Holocaust-Mahnmal (picture-alliance/Schoening)

    The Holocaust Memorial

    A huge field of stelae slabs in the center of the German capital was designed by New York architect Peter Eisenmann. Almost 3,000 stone blocks commemorate the six million Jewish people from all over Europe who were murdered by the National Socialists.

  • Stolpersteine (DW/T.Walker)

    Stumbling Blocks

    These brass plates are very small, only 10 by 10 centimeters (3.9 x 3.9 inches). You can find them everywhere on the sidewalks in Berlin. The stumbling blocks are a reminder of people who lived in the adjacent houses before they were deported by the Nazis. In total there are more than 7,000 of these stumbling blocks in Berlin.

  • Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz in Berlin (picture-alliance/dpa)

    The Wannsee Conference House

    Fifteen high-ranking Nazi officials met in this villa on the Wannsee Lake on January 20, 1942 to discuss the systematic murder of European Jews which they called the "final solution to the Jewish question". Today the house is a memorial. It informs about the unimaginable dimension of the genocide that was decided here.

  • Mahnmal Gleis 17 (imago/IPON)

    Track 17 Memorial

    White roses on track 17 at Grunewald station remember the more than 50,000 Berlin Jews who were sent to their deaths from here. 186 steel plates show the date, destination and number of deportees. The first train went to the Litzmannstadt ghetto (Łódź) on 18 October 1941, the last train to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on January 5, 1945.

  • Deutschland Berlin Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt (picture-alliance/Arco Images)

    Otto Weidt's Workshop for the Blind

    Today, the Hackesche Höfe in Berlin Mitte are mentioned in every travel guide. They are a backyard labyrinth in which many Jewish people lived and worked - for example in the brush factory of the German entrepreneur Otto Weidt. During the Nazi era he employed many blind and deaf Jews and saved them from deportation and death. The workshop of the blind is now a museum.

  • Deutschland Berlin - Hausvogteiplatz (picture-alliance/dpa/J. Kalaene)

    Fashion Center Hausvogteiplatz

    The heart of Berlin's fashion metropolis once beat here. A memorial sign made of high mirrors recalls the Jewish fashion designers and stylists who made clothes for the whole of Europe at Hausvogteiplatz. The National Socialists expropriated the Jewish owners and handed over the fashion stores to Aryan employees. Berlin's fashion center was irretrievably destroyed during the Second World War.

  • Jüdisches Leben in Berlin (DW)

    Memorial at Koppenplatz

    Before the Holocaust, 173,000 Jews lived in Berlin, in 1945 there were only 9,000. The monument "Der verlassene Raum" (The Deserted Room) is located in the middle of the Koppenplatz residential area. It is a reminder of the Jewish citizens who were taken from their homes without warning and never returned.

  • Jüdisches Museum Berlin (AP)

    The Jewish Museum

    Architect Daniel Libeskind chose a dramatic design: viewed from above, the building looks like a broken Star of David. The Jewish Museum is one of the most visited museums in Berlin, offering an overview of the turbulent German-Jewish history.

  • Jüdische Kultur in Berlin (Renate Pelzl)

    Weissensee Jewish Cemetery

    There are still eight remaining Jewish cemeteries in Berlin, the largest of them in the Weissensee district. With over 115,000 graves it is the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. Many persecuted Jews hid in the complex premises during the Nazi era. On May 11, 1945, only three days after the end of the Second World War, the first Jewish service was held here.

  • Jüdische Kultur in Berlin (Renate Pelzl)

    The New Synagogue

    When the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse was first consecrated in 1866 it was considered the largest and most magnificent synagogue in Germany. It burned down during the Second World War. In 1995 the reconstructed synagogue was inaugurated. Since then, the 50-meter-high golden dome once again dominates Berlin's city-scape.


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