https:\/\/www.stolpersteine-berlin.de\/de\/glossar#letter_s<\/a>)<\/p>\nIn order to ensure that the deportations ran smoothly, the employees of the Jewish community were forced to compile the transport lists and to help the prisoners at the collection point to record their financial circumstances and complete the forms. In addition, the Jewish community alone was responsible for caring for and supporting the people intended for deportation.<\/p>\n
The synagogue itself was damaged during the war but not destroyed. After the end of the Nazi regime, it stood empty for ten years until the Senate had it demolished. Unnecessarily in fact, because according to eyewitnesses it was neither unsafe nor in danger of collapsing. A Jewish community that would have needed such a large building no longer existed, however.<\/p>\n
While 12,286 Jewish people lived in Tiergarten in 1933, there were only 161 in 1945 (Kurt Schilde: Versteckt in Tiergarten, Auf der Flucht vor den Nachbarn. A memorial book for those hiding in the district during the National Socialist era, Berlin 1995, p. 16f.)<\/p>\n
In September 1938, Hitler\u2019s star architect Albert Speer, who had been appointed \u201cGeneral Building Inspector for the Reich Capital Berlin\u201c, developed the plan to sacrifice thousands of houses on the magnificent north-south axis of the future world capital \u201cGermania\u201d. In 1938 alone, 7,000 apartments were demolished. (See Spiegel 30\/1995 \u201cSiegreich bauen\u201d.) Since there was a lack of money and material to build replacement apartments, Speer came up with the idea of the \u201cforced expulsion of Jews\u201d from their apartments. In 1941, the Hansaviertel was declared \u201cfree of Jews\u201d.<\/p>\n
The architect Hans Stephan (1902\u20131973) was recruited by Albert Speer as head of department for the redevelopment of Berlin. In 1944, Speer commissioned him to lead the reconstruction planning of Berlin in the newly established \u201cArbeitsstab f\u00fcr den Wiederaufbau bombenzerst\u00f6rter St\u00e4dte\u201d (\u201cTask force for the Reconstruction of Bomb Damaged Cities\u201d). From 1948, he worked for the municipal building authorities in Berlin (despite various protests about his past activities) and in 1953 took charge of regional and city planning for the Senator for Building and Housing in West Berlin. In 1956, he was even promoted to Senate Building Director, where he was involved in the planning of Interbau 1957 (see Spiegel article). In 1960, he resigned from his post as Senate Building Director as a result of political pressure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nExcerpt from the speech of Pastor Sabine R\u00f6hm, Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Tiergarten,
\nfor the inauguration of the \u201cWindow of Remembrance \u201d on 9 July 2018 (in the Hansaplatz underground station, on the Hansa Library side)
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n…A former Jewish resident of the Hansaviertel, Edith Marcuse, sister of the German-Jewish philosopher and writer Ludwig Marcuse, left in her estate descriptions of everyday Jewish life from 1941. \u201cIt was already a period of insurmountable barriers and deportations. Escape was inconceivable. In her notes, she describes the waiting as alternating between hope and fear\u201d. I quote from Bertram Janiszewski\u2019s book \u201cDas alte Hansaviertel\u201d: \u201cThe anxiety amongst the Jews is indescribable. Scenes unfolded on the street and at the synagogue on Levetzowstra\u00dfe: helpless Jews, screaming Jews in crying fits (…) As much as I try to stay calm, this choking fear is hard to escape\u201d. Edith was also deported in 1942 and died on 8 May 1945 at the age of 48. Her brother survived in exile.<\/p>\n
All this happened before the eyes of the general public and the Protestant and Catholic Churches, making them complicit. It took a lot of courage to defend oneself against the perpetrators of violence and murderers. Most did not dare and remained silent. But many Christians supported the Nazis. In the Protestant Church this included the \u201cGerman Christians\u201d who wanted to combine the Christian faith with the ideas of the National Socialists. They even worked to ensure that Jews who had converted to Christianity were excluded from the church. This fundamentally contradicted the Christian message and the Christian image of humanity, which the Confessing Church had already written down in an impressively provocative way in 1934 in the Theological Declaration of Barmen. The persecuted were denied the protection they so desperately needed.<\/p>\n
Memories move, they set emotions free. The memories we commemorate tonight are grave and burdensome . We remember so that they are not forgotten or repressed, so that future generations will know about what happened. The more time passes, the more urgent this task becomes, for there are now young people to whom the name \u201cAuschwitz\u201d means absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n
And when time passes and there is no one left to tell their own stories and talk about their own experiences, then others are needed to share those stories and experiences, by telling them, writing them down or creating art. Such as this \u201cWindow of Remembrance\u201d, on which the names of 1030 Jewish inhabitants have been immortalized. These people died nameless, with only a number. But names are important. They make a person unique and distinct. By losing their name, they lost their personality, their individuality, their dignity and finally their lives. How good it is that at least some of them get their names back here in this window (and through the stumbling stones on the pavements of the city).<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why it is good that there’s this Window of Remembrance. It is an important memorial. And it is good that you are here to appreciate it and to remember the past together \u2013 so that we have a future.<\/p>\n
Thank you for this window!<\/p>\n
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