A remembrance Service has been Held at Grünewald "S" Bahn Station marking the 72 years since the Berlin Jewish community started to be deported. The The Mayor of Greater Berlin was the Guest Speaker and mentioned, Freedom, Tolerance and Democracy and that all must be united in keeping these values alive. More than 50000 Jews were deported from Berlin from October 1941. Links on subject. http://www.berlin.de/2013/en/open-air-exhibitions/urban-memorials/03-mathilde-jacob-platz-the-path-of-the-deportees/ http://www.deutschebahn.com/en/group/history/topics/platform17_memorial.html http://www.memorialmuseums.org/eng/staettens/view/338/Mahnmal-Gleis-17-%E2%80%93--Berlin-Grunewald http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/photos/grunew/grunew.htm http://en.tracesofwar.com/article/3022/Deportation-Memorial-Grunewald-Station.htm http://www.demotix.com/news/2823709/berlin-grunewald-commemorates-ww2-nazi-deportation-jews#media-2823466 Regards Tom
Tom Thanks for bringing this to our attention. It is news such as this that gives me hope for the Germany of today. Ron
It took until early 1943 to complete, though! Goebbels' diaries...he was in nominal charge of the deportation project, but liaised heavily with Heydrich!...records that there were three separate arrest waves; the first was regarded as a "failure" because there were a lot of Berlin's Jews missed...and a degree of armed opposition to the roundup! Goebbels is very petulant about that!... But a lot of Jews got advance warning of the round up...from their employers...because Berlin's Jewish population was the backbone of the city's munitions industry! So thousands were able to take temporary refuge with non-Jewish workmates and familes. The SECOND roundup was more successful - but STILL left some 8,000 at liberty in the city - because this time it seems as if there was a degree of organisation behind hiding them! This time, their employers phoned round their Jewish employees ASAP and warned them, and often gave them shelter themselves... The third and final roundup eradicated most of the city's remaining jews, though quite a few then remained in hiding until the end of the war.. Obviously, there's been a lot of "history" written on the roundups and deportations themselves - but this element of resistance by the Jews and organised definance of the Nazis by Berlin's munitions magnates seems to have been almost wholly ignored by historians. But as a propagandist, I can't really see Goebbels NOT recording the failures of "his" programme if the failures weren't real and pretty widely known! I've a feeling this is an aspect of history that is going to slip through the cracks, because there can't be many living survivors of the Berlin roundups left now - and those that ARE left must have been children at the time!
Phylo, I believe that you are correct with your thinking with regards to the Resistance against the roundups. Unfortunately there is not a lot of emphasis placed on this particular Piece of history and anti NS activities, for which many paid their lives for being involved. Regards Tom
