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Shoes on the Danube Bank

Sculptors Gyula Pauer and Can Togay have created a moving memorial to these Holocaust atrocities that sits in front of the magnificent Parliament building on the edge of the river. What visitors will see are 60 pairs of rusted period shoes cast out of iron. Different sizes and styles reflect how nobody was spared from the brutality of the Arrow Cross militia (the shoes depict children, women, businessmen, sportsmen etc.).

The memorial was designed to honour the Jews who were massacred by Fascist Hungarian militia belonging to the Arrow Cross Party in Budapest during the Second World War. They were ordered to take off their shoes (shoes were valuable and could be stolen and resold by the militia after the massacre), and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. The memorial represents their shoes left behind on the bank. Behind the sculpture lies a 40 meter long, 70 cm high stone bench where at three points are cast iron signs, with the following text in Hungarian, English, and Hebrew: “To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944–45. Erected 16 April 2005.”

Image attribution:
Dennis JARVIS, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Marek Mróz, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Jewish Museum of Berlin

The Jewish Museum Berlin is one of the outstanding institutions on the European museum landscape. Its new core exhibition that opened in 2020, its temporary exhibitions, collections, events program and the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy, as well as its digital and educational offerings make the museum is a vibrant place for dialog and reflection on Jewish past and present in Germany. ANOHA, the JMB Children’s World, tells the story of Noah’s Ark as a fun experience for children. Our exhibitions, events, and diverse program address a broad audience from Germany and around the world. Our collections grow continually, thanks also to many donors from Germany and abroad.

A special focus is educational work – the extensive education program, the research opportunities in the library and archive, and the program of events are aimed at children, young people, and adults. In addition to guided tours and workshops, there are lectures and conferences, concerts and readings, and an annual cultural summer program. Our digital programs are also very diverse, including the museum’s website, the JMB app, various online features on Jewish topics, online publications, online collections, and a media library.

The New Synagogue of Berlin

The New Synagogue on Oranienburger Straße in Berlin is a mid-19th century synagogue built as the main place of worship for Berlin’s Jewish community, succeeding the Old Synagogue which the community outgrew. Because of its eastern Moorish style and resemblance to the Alhambra, the New Synagogue is an important architectural monument in Germany.

The building was designed by Eduard Knoblauch. Following Knoblauch’s death in 1865, Friedrich August Stüler took responsibility for the majority of its construction as well as for its interior arrangement and design. It was inaugurated in the presence of Count Otto von Bismarck, then Minister President of Prussia, in 1866. One of the few synagogues to survive Kristallnacht, it was badly damaged prior to and during World War II and subsequently much was demolished; the present building on the site is a reconstruction of the ruined street frontage with its entrance, dome and towers, and only a few rooms behind. It is truncated before the point where the main hall of the synagogue began.

The New Synagogue was built to serve the growing Jewish population in Berlin, in particular, immigrants from the East. It was the largest synagogue in Germany at the time, seating 3,000 people. The building housed public concerts, including a violin concert with Albert Einstein in 1930. With an organ and a choir, the religious services reflected the liberal developments in the Jewish community of the time.

During the November Pogrom (9 November 1938), colloquially euphemised as “Kristallnacht”, a Nazi mob broke into the Neue Synagoge, desecrated the Torah scrolls, smashed the furniture, piled up such contents as would burn in the synagogue interior, and set fire to them. Lieutenant Otto Bellgardt, the police officer of the local police precinct on duty that night, arrived on the scene in the early morning of 10 November and ordered the arsonists to disperse. He said the building was a protected historical landmark and drew his pistol, declaring that he would uphold the law requiring its protection. This allowed the fire brigade to enter and extinguish the fire before it could spread to the fabric of the building, and the synagogue was saved from destruction.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas)is located on Cora-Berliner-Straße. Designed by Peter Eisenman, it features 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid-like formation. Each slab is several meters long and 3 feet wide. Adjacent to the memorial is an information center, which contains a timeline of the Final Solution, as well as the names of millions of victims of the holocaust. There’s also a visitors center, which displays many important moments and memories from the Holocaust. The memorial was opened in May 2005.

The debates over whether to have such a memorial and what form it should take extend back to the late 1980s, when a small group of private German citizens, led by television journalist Lea Rosh and historian Eberhard Jäckel, first began pressing for Germany to honor the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Rosh soon emerged as the driving force behind the memorial. In 1989, she founded a group to support its construction and to collect donations. With growing support, the Bundestag (German federal parliament) passed a resolution in favour of the project. On 25 June 1999, the Bundestag decided to build the memorial designed by Peter Eisenman. A federal foundation (Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) was consequently founded to run it.

Three years after the official opening of the memorial, half of the blocks made from compacting concrete started to crack. While some interpret this defect as an intentional symbolization of the immortality and durability of the Jewish community, the memorials’ foundation deny this. Some analyze the lack of individual names on the monument as an illustration of the unimaginable number of murdered Jews in the Holocaust. In this way, the memorial illustrates that the number of Jewish individuals murdered in the Holocaust was so colossal that is impossible to physically visualize

Stolpersteine (the “Stumbling Stone”)

The Stolpersteine (stumbling stone) is an art project inspired by Gunter Demnig. The concept is to install commemorative brass plaques in the pavement in front of the homes of known holocaust victims. The plaque records who lived at the address and that they were a victim of the Nazi regime. The very first stolperstein was set on 16 December 1992 in front of the Cologne City Hall. Currently, there are tens of thousands of “Stolpersteines” across Europe. In Berlin, there are many such stones, including a famous one located at Togostraße 25O, which is open daily for public viewing.

Image attribution:
Gmbo 2013, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Geolina163, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Weissensee Cemetery

The Weißensee Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery located in the neighborhood of Weißensee in Berlin, Germany. It is the second largest Jewish cemetery in Europe covering approximately 100 acres and contains approximately 115,000 graves.

Directly in front of the entrance is a Holocaust memorial, a commemorative stone, surrounded by further stones, each with the names of concentration camps. Next to this, there is a memorial to Jews who lost their lives during World War I (which was dedicated in 1927) and also a commemorative plaque to those who fought Nazism.

The plot of land was bought by the Jewish community of Berlin, comprising – besides congregants of orthodox and reform affiliation – mostly observants of mainstream Judaism (in today’s term described at best as conservative Judaism). The old Jewish cemetery in Große Hamburger Straße, opened 1672, had reached its full capacity in 1827. The second cemetery in Schönhauser Allee, opened in the same year, reached its capacity in the 1880s, offering only few remaining gravesites in family ensembles mostly reserved for widows and widowers next to their earlier deceased spouses. Weißensee Cemetery was designed by renowned German architect Hugo Licht in the Italian Neorenaissance style. It was inaugurated in 1880. The surrounding walls and main building (where the archives are kept and the cemetery is administered) were constructed with a distinctive yellow brick. A second building (built in 1910) was destroyed during World War II.

The grave plots are arranged into 120 different sections, each with its own geometric shape. The lavish way in which the more well-to-do individuals and families interred here chose to fashion their mausoleums using the latest art nouveau designs is immediately noticeable. The periphery of the cemetery is predominantly reserved for the upper and middle classes, while the center is occupied by the less well off, in areas which are harder to reach and often overgrown by foliage.

With the rise of Nazism the existence of the cemetery was at risk (many Jewish cemeteries in Europe were destroyed) but the site survived relatively unscathed. Some 4000 graves are estimated to have been damaged by Allied bombing. After World War II, Jews from all parts of Berlin continued to use the cemetery up until 1955. Between 1955 and German reunification in 1990, only the small Jewish community in East Berlin used it.

During the four decades of the German Democratic Republic, the cemetery was relatively neglected because most of Berlin’s Jewish community had been murdered during, or had fled from, the Holocaust. Many of the graves were left unattended and became overgrown with weeds. In the 1970s, plans to build an expressway over part of the cemetery were considered, linking Michelangelostraße to the newly constructed Hansastraße. This proposal was dropped due to strong objections from the remaining Jewish community.

It has been estimated by cemetery officials that the cost of fully repairing the damage caused by years of neglect would amount to 40 million euros. On the occasion of the cemetery’s 125th anniversary, appeals were made to the Berlin government to increase funding, so that a bid can be made to add the site to the UNESCO world heritage list. The bid was supported by Berlin’s former mayor Klaus Wowereit.

Image Attribution:
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1988-0911-020 / Schindler, Karl-Heinz / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE , via Wikimedia Commons;
Neuköllner, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons;
OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The New Jewish Cemetery

The New Jewish Cemetery is a historic necropolis situated on 55 Miodowa Street in Kraków, Poland. Located in the former Jewish neighborhood of Kazimierz, it covers an area of about 11 acres. Since 1999, the cemetery is a registered heritage monument. The grounds also feature a well-preserved mortuary. The New Jewish Cemetery was founded in 1800 on grounds purchased by the Jewish Qahal from the Augustinians. It was enlarged in 1836 with additional land purchased from the monks.

Following Poland’s return to independence, the New Cemetery became nearly full. From 1932 on, burials were directed to a new plot bought in 1926 by the Qahal along Abrahama Street and the one at nearby Jerozolimska Street, both in the Wola Duchacka neighborhood (now part of Podgórze district). These two other cemeteries formed the site of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp during the Holocaust and no longer exist. The Jews from the Kraków Ghetto were sent there.

Following the Nazi invasion of Poland in World War II, the New Cemetery was closed to outsiders and the Germans sold the most valuable stonework to local masons. Other headstones, as well as slabs, were turned into construction material and used for paving the supply road to the camp, including the courtyard of commandant Amon Göth, who is known for having insisted that the Jews pay for their own executions.

Meanwhile, the old bones at the cemetery were often left uncovered and scattered around in what looked like an open-pit mine. Caretaker Pina Ladner, who used to live on premises, was sent to Płaszów and shot. Soon after the war ended, a local civil engineer identified only as Mr. Stendig, likely Jakub Stendig, a camp survivor, recovered many tombstones from the Płaszów camp site, and arranged to have them reinstalled at the New Cemetery.

In 1957, the grounds were renovated with funds from the Joint Distribution Committee. After the collapse of communism on March 24, 1999, the cemetery, including the 1903 mortuary, were entered into the register of historical monuments of Kraków. The New Jewish Cemetery features a renovated brick mortuary hall from 1903, as well as the postwar lapidary memorial fitted with old headstones and crowned with a block of black marble. The cemetery contains over 10,000 tombs, the oldest dating from 1809. There are many monuments commemorating the death of Jews killed during the Holocaust.

Liban Querry

As an unmaintained site, the quarry is rather overgrown with nature and has become somewhat of a sanctuary for several types of bird such as waterfowl and pheasants, among other critters. The rusted refinery lies surrounded by steep limestone cliffs, covered with a thick forest of pines. The original fence posts and barbed wire can still be found hidden within the shrubbery that surrounds the quarry. There is a slightly eerie feel to the quarry, given its lack of use and derelict state, but it hosts a wealth of history nonetheless.

Established by two Jewish industrial families from Podgórze in 1873, the quarry was connected to a railway line for easy transportation of materials. The quarry was active until the Nazi occupation, where it was then used as a labor camp for young Polish prisoners from 1942 until 1944. When the camp was liquidated near the end of the war, 21 inmates were executed and a small, overgrown memorial lies on the cliffside towards Za Torem. Although it is quite possible to find and explore the Liban Quarry on your own, a guide can provide an enhanced visit and a deeper insight into the history and nature of this unique site.

Image attribution:
Mateusz Giełczyński, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tempel Synagogue

The Tempel Synagogue is a synagogue in Kraków, Poland, in the Kazimierz district. Tempel Synagogue is not only a major place of worship, but also a booming center of Jewish culture, which hosts numerous concerts and meetings, especially during the Festival.

The main room is spacious and airy, with a high ceiling and inner balconies that are matched in golden floral decor. The Tempel Synagogue is adorned with beautiful mosaic work of gold foliage, pale blues and burgundy. The bimah sits in the middle of the main hall, along with a white marble and golden-crowned Aron Kodesh that is detailed with houses resembling Polish folk art, as opposed to the Moorish designs found in the rest of the building. During World War II, the Nazis stored ammunition in the synagogue, which had many elements destroyed during that period. However, soon after the war, Tempel was reopened for prayers and in 1947 the synagogue saw the addition of a mikvah.

The synagogue was used for prayer until 1985 and in the 90s it saw a massive renovation that brought it to the state it is in today. As one of the active synagogues in Kazimierz, the Tempel Synagogue hosts many celebrations and festivities throughout the year but does not host regular prayer sessions. For this, community members head to the Remuh Synagogue. Nonetheless, a visit to this beautiful worship space is highly recommended.

Image attribution:
Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Marcin Konsek / Wikimedia Commons

Remuh Synagogue

Built in 1558, the Remuh Synagogue was named for Rabbi Moses Isserles, famed for writing a collection of commentaries of the Shulchan Aruch. The origin of the synagogue is somewhat up for debate: some believe that Isserles’ father, a royal banker and merchant, founded it for his son, whereas other evidence indicates it was built in memory of Isserles’ mother, Malka.

The synagogue underwent many renovations over the centuries, thanks to fires and the constant changing of ownership. The building in its current state dates back to a restoration from the 1820s, although there were some improvements made after World War II. During the war, the German Trust Office took control of the synagogue and used it for storing equipment. Although the building remained intact, many historic, ceremonial finishes – the bimah, included – were ruined. The Remuh Synagogue underwent its last major renovation in 1957.

When you visit the synagogue, you can find the Jewish Remuh Cemetery next door. Dating back to the mid-16th century, the Cemetery is renown for being the burial site of many notable Polish Jews, including Rabbi Moses Isserles. Once a year, on the anniversary of the Isserles’ death, many Jews from all around the world come and pay tribute to this important figure in Jewish history.

Image Attribution:
Yair Haklai, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Zygmunt Put, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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