Memorial Name
Gleis (Platform) 17 Memorial – Berlin Grunewald
Who is Commemorated?
Jews who were deported from Berlin to the ghettos of Theresienstadt, Minsk, Riga, Kaunas, and Łódź, to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Description:
The monument consists of the reconstructed train platform on which Jews were gathered and from which they were loaded onto transport trains. The edges of the platforms are lined with 186 cast steel sections, referring to the number of transports that left Berlin. Inscribed on these are the dates of the transport, the number of deportees, and the train's destination. These are arranged in chronological order. Vegetation that has developed around Platform 17 has been left to grow between the rails and now forms an intentional part of the memorial. Ti the right of the entrance to the train station is a rough concrete wall set with hollow impressions of humans, to signify the forced marches that took place to this station.
Inscriptions
1987 bronze plaque on the platform by the signal building:
Hebrew
[To be photographed and transcribed]
German
ZUM GEDENKEN AN ZEHNTAUSENDE JÜDISCHE
BÜRGER BERLINS, DIE AB OKTOBER 1941
BIS FEBRUAR 1945 VON HIER AUS DURCH
DIE NAZI-HENKER IN DIE TODESLAGER
DEPORTIERT UND ERMORDET WURDEN.
translation: In memory of the tens of thousands of Jewish citizens of Berlin, who were deported by the Nazis between October 1941 and February 1945 from here to death camps and murdered.
Around the track platform are inscriptions with the dates of the transport, the number of deportees, and the train's destination.
[To be photographed and transcribed]
On a placard affixed to the wall near the entrance to the monument (German):
GLEIS 17
Zum Gedenken an die 1941-1945
Durch Züge der Deutschen Reichsbahn
In die Todeslager Deportierten
27. Januar 1998
Errichtet durch die Deutsche Bahn AG
Translation: PLATFORM 17 / Commemorating the 1941-1945 Deutsche Reichsbahn deportations to the death camps via train / January 27, 1998 / Built by Deutsche Bahn AG
On a bronze plaque affixed to the platform (German):
Zum Gedenken an die
mehr als 50,000 Juden Berlins,
die zwischen Oktober 1941 und
Februar 1945 vorwiegend
vom Güterbahnof Grunewald aus
durch den nationalsozialistischen
Staat in seine
Vernichtungslager deportiert
und ermordent wurden.
Zur Mahnung an uns,
jeder Miẞachtung des Lebens
und der Würde des Menschen
mutig und ohne Zögern
entgegenzutreten.
Translation: In memory of more than 50 000 Jews of Berlin that, between October 1941 and February 1945, were deported, mostly from the railway station Güterbahnof Grunewald, by the National Socialist state to its death camps and were murdered. // As a reminder to us to oppose any disregard towards life and human honor courageously and without any hesitation.
Commissioned by
Deutsche Bahn