Obj. ID: 50315
Memorials Baruch Auerbach Orphanage Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany, 2011, 2014
Memorial Name
Baruch Auerbach Orphanage for Jewish Girls and Boys Memorial
Who is Comemmorated?
The children of the orphanage, who were murdered in the Holocaust
Description
The memorial site consists of several parts. A signpost is installed between the sidewalk and the street. It has a photograph of the former orphanage, names the site in German and English, and indicates the way to the entrance. In front of the sign is a full-size ceramic soccer ball (football), set on the ground as if it had just rolled there. This is to suggest the games of the children who once lived here.
New buildings have been erected on the site. A plaque from 2011 is affixed to the outer wall of the present building.
One enters the site through a passageway in the new street façade that leads to an inner courtyard. An information sign is affixed to the wall of the passage. This sign presents in German and English the history of the orphanage with photos and the history of the memorial project.
The memorial itself consists of part of the last remaining wall of the Baruch Auerbach Orphanage for Jewish Girls and Boys. This red brick wall, divided into sections by (former) buttresses and surmounted by a low decorative arcade, has been rebuilt and preserved as a memorial. The names and ages of 140 known deported children and their caretakers killed by the Nazis are inscribed on the bricks. In front of the wall is a tall glass panel with a photo of the orphanage and historical information about the orphanage and the deportation and murder of the children etched into the glass.
A tree that stood before the making of the monument was preserved and incorporated into the design. The area of the memorial curves out to include the tree and a bench is built around it for contemplative seating.
Inscriptions
Exterior wall plaque (German)
Berliner Gedenktafel
An diesem Ort befand sich das 1897 errichtete
Baruch Auerbach'scheb
Waisenhaus
1942 wurden die letzten Lehrer und Zöglinge
Darunter zwanzig Kinder im Alter bus zu fünf Jahren –
In das Rigaer Ghetto deporttiert und dort ermordet
Translation: In this place was built in 1897 the Baruch Auerbach Orphanage. In 1942, the last teachers and pupils, including twenty children up to the age of five years, were deported to the Riga ghetto and murdered there.
On the text panel of the monument
German
Im Jahr 1833 gründete Baruch Auerbach (1793-1864) in der Rosenstraße ein Heim für jüdische Kinder. Sein Ziel war, ein “Elternhaus für Waisen” zu schaffen. Er legte viel Wert auf ihre musische Erziehung. 1897 bezogen rund 80 Zöglinge das neue Gebäude in der Schönhauser Allee. Nach der Machtübernahme der Nationalsozialisten lebten die Mädchen und Jungen hier wie auf einer “Insel im braunen Meer”, so Walter Frankenstein, einer der letzten noch lebenden Auerbacher.
Am 19 Oktober 1942, win Jahr nach der ersten Deportation von Juden aus Berlin, verließ der 21 “Osttransport” mit 959 Menschen die deutsche Hauptstadt. Darunter befanden sich fast 60 Kinder zwischen 2 und 16 Jahren aus dem Waisenhaus und 3 ihrer Betreuer. Das Ziel war Riga. Dort erschossen SS-Angehorige die meisten Verschleppten in Wäldern.
Im 23 “Ostransport” vom 29 November 1942 befanden sich 998 Personen, darunter 75 Kinder, überwiegend Auerbacher im Alter von 10 Monaten bis 16 Jahren. Sie und weitere Zöglinge des Auerbach’schen Waisenhauses wurden in den Gaskammern von Auschwitz ermordet. Seit 2000 wird ihrer an diesem Ort gedacht.
English
In 1833, Baruch Auerbach (1793–1864) founded a home for Jewish children in Rosenstraße. The aim was to create a family home for orphans. He emphasized the importance of providing an artistic education. In 1897, around 80 children moved into this building in Schönhauser Allee. After the National Socialists took power the boys and girls lived here like on "an island in the sea of brown” as Walter Frankenstein, one of the last surviving Auerbach children, put it.
On October 19th, 1942, one year after the first deportations of Jews from Berlin, the 21st “Osttransport” carrying 959 people left the German capital. Among them were nearly 60 children from the orphanage aged 2 to 16 as well as 3 of their caretakers. The trains were destined for Riga, where members of the SS shot most of the deportees in forests.
There were 998 people aboard the 23rd “Osttransport” which departed on November 29th, 1942, including 75 children between 10 months and 16 years of age, most of them from the Auerbach orphanage. They perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, as did other Auerbach children period. Since 2000 they have been commemorated here.
Commissioned by
Initiated by Walter Frankenstein
The memorial site was realized with funding from the State of Berlin, represented by The Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery Cultural Affairs, Art in Public Spaces; Implemented by Berlin Immobilien Management GmbH (BIM) 2
sub-set tree:
Brick
Glass
In 1833, Baruch Auerbach (1793–1864) founded a home for Jewish children in Rosenstrasse. He emphasized the importance of providing an artistic education, he aimed to create a “family home for orphans”. In 1897, around 80 children then moved into a new building on Schönhauser Allee. After the National Socialists took power the boys and girls lived here like on “an island in the sea of brown” as Walter Frankenstein, one of the last surviving Auerbach children, put it – the orphanage did everything to keep the children away from persecution.
On October 19, 1942, one year after the first deportations of Jews from Berlin, the 21st “Osttransport” carrying 959 people left the German capital. Among them were nearly 60 children from the orphanage aged 2 to 16, as well as 3 of their caretakers. The trains were destined for Riga, where members of the SS shot most of the deportees in forests. There were 998 people aboard the 23rd “Osttransport”, which departed on November 29, 1942, including 75 children between 10 months and 16 years of age, most of them from the Auerbach Orphanage. They were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. After this deportation, the orphanage was dissolved; the building was confiscated and used by the Hitler Youth. In 1943, the building was destroyed in an air raid of the Allies.”
Until it was dissolved by force in 1942, the Auerbach Orphanage was a sanctuary for Jewish children. The building was heavily damaged by bombs, and the ruins were torn down in the 1950s. Only a small part of the outer wall survives, and this has been incorporated into the memorial.
After the war and the building demolition, the Orphanage and the fate of its children and staff were mostly forgotten. In June 2000, however, students of Kurt Schwitters School in Prenzlauer Berg, together with artist Karla Sachse, attached clay toys on the front garden wall in memory of the murdered children. A few days later these were destroyed. The students made new clay figures, and these and the remaining fragments of the original pieces are stored at the Pankow Museum.
On the initiative of Walter Frankenstein (born 1924), one of the few surviving Auerbach children, the Berlin Senate had a memorial plaque mounted on the façade of the building that now occupies the site, inaugurated on September 5, 2011. The site was further enhanced on June 26, 2014, when the more extensive memorial, designed by the artist Susanne Ahner, was opened to the public. The memorial was initiated by Walter Frankenstein and sponsored by the Berlin Senate and the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. All the known names and ages of the murdered children as well as their caretakers now are inscribed on the original brick wall. The memorial sign is complemented by an information plaque.
Ahner, Susanne, Anne Langer, and Uwe Neumärker. A Place of Memory: Baruch Auerbach’s Orphanage. Berlin: Senate Chancellery Cultural Affairs,
Art in Public Spaces, 2014, https://www.stiftung-denkmal.de/wp-content/uploads/AUW-Flyer_20160314_ENGLISH_Final.pdf (accessed July 5, 2023)
"Die Namen bekamen ein Gesicht“ Bildungsthemen, Das Magazin von Phorms Education (Student Reporter), https://bildungsthemen.phorms.de/de/schuelerreporter/die-namen-bekamen-ein-gesicht/ (accessed July 5, 2023)