Berlin is dotted with memorials and plaques, but this memorial at Bahnhof Friedchstraße is one of the most poignant, as it highlights the pivotal role which trains played in determining the fate of Berlin’s Jews.
In 1938, following the horrors of Kristallnacht, the British government organised a programme called “Kindertransport” to grant asylum to thousands of Jewish children from across Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland. – The first Kindertransport, carrying 196 children, left Berlin on the 1st of December 1938.
The Kindertransport programme would continue up until the outbreak of the war in September 1939, by which point around 10 thousand Jewish children had successfully escaped the clutches of the Nazis by finding sanctuary in the UK.
Whilst trains represented a chance of life *before* the war for Berlin’s Jews, it was a different story during the war. As trains were used to deport the city’s Jewish population, and ultimately deliver them to their deaths in places such as Auschwitz.
This memorial at Friedrichstraße is simple yet effective, and the fact it’s placed right outside of one of the city’s busiest train stations helps to ensure that the plight of the Berlin Jews during the Second World War isn’t forgotten.
(This is a repost from Instagram from August 20th, 2024)