05/11/2017 Commemorative ceremony

Inauguration of the Hannoverscher Bahnhof Memorial

The memorial commemorates all the Jews, Sinti and Roma who were deported from this place between 1940 and 1945.

Inauguration

On Wednesday, May 10, 2017, the Hannoverscher Bahnhof Memorial was inaugurated in Lohsepark by the First Mayor of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz, in the presence of survivors, witnesses and representatives of victims’ associations. In this way, Hamburg is commemorating more than 8000 Jews, Sinti and Roma who were deported from the former Hannoverscher Bahnhof train station to ghettos, concentration and extermination camps all over central and eastern Europe by National Socialists supported by the Hamburg authorities. For most of them, the deportations meant death.

Olaf Scholz, First Mayor of Hamburg, Mark Dainow (Central Council of Jews in Germany), Romani Rose (Central Council of German Sinti and Roma), Miranda Voulasranta (European Roma and Traveller Forum) as well as Lucille Eichengreen, a survivor, who was deported from Hamburg to the Lodz Ghetto in 1941, spoke at the inauguration. Led by the First Mayor, President of the Parliament, Carola Veit and the representatives of victims’ associations, the procession consisting of survivors, their relatives and 600 other guests walked from the Lohseplatz to the memorial site at the historical Platform 2, where they laid wreathes, roses and said prayers. For the first time, twenty boards were displayed, which contain the names of the people who, according to the results of historical research, were sent to die in the ghettos concentration and extermination camps Auschwitz, Belzec, Lodz, Minsk, Riga and Theresienstadt.

Olaf Scholz, First Mayor of Hamburg: “At the Hannoverscher Bahnhof, remembrance and the present stand side by side. With this memorial, the history of the Hannoverscher Bahnhof train station, which for a very long time had been pushed into the background, can find its place in the memory of the city.”

Mark Dainow, Vice President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany: “The fact that we are inaugurating this memorial today is extremely important in the time of resurgence of populist slogans, hate speech, inciting irrational fears and anti-democratic sentiment in Germany.”

Romani Rose, President of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma: “Remembering history always means taking active responsibility for the present. Together we have to make sure that we remain a society with a human face.”

In conjunction with the inauguration of the memorial, there is an extensive program with survivors’ testimonies, lectures and tours. Here you can find the full program and other information: www.hannoverscher-bahnhof.hamburg.de.  

Program

 

Hannoverscher Bahnhof Memorial

Representatives of victims’ associations have been included in the process of the development of the memorial from the very beginning. The concept was developed by the Ministry of Culture and the HafenCity Hamburg GmbH as part of a competition for the park. The former train station, which was a starting point for 20 deportation trains, lies in the middle of Lohsepark in HafenCity. The memorial consists of the following elements:

The so-called “Seam” runs from the former station forecourt through the park and all the way to the former Platform 2, symbolizing the former railroad tracks. The Seam was opened in the summer 2016 together with the Lohsepark. The park design incorporates the historic relics of the Platform 2 and the railroad tracks of the Hannoverscher Bahnhof, blown up in 1955, which were directly connected to the deportations. On May 10, 2017, the next part of the memorial on the former platform was inaugurated. The boards containing names serve as a reminder of more than 8000 Jews, Sinti and Roma deported from this place.

The final step to the completion of the Hannoverscher Bahnhof Memorial will be the opening of a documentation center, which will be located in the immediate vicinity of the memorial, on the ground floor of a new building. The core element of the documentation center will be a permanent exhibition dealing with the destiny of the deported citizens of Hamburg and other parts of northern Germany, set up by the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. It will be based on the book “Sent to Their Deaths”. Since the fall 2013, a small exhibition can be seen at the info pavilion on Lohseplatz.

 

Press Releases (in German)

NDR: Neuer Gedenkort erinnert an Deportationen
SAT1: Hannoverscher Bahnhof. Neuer Gedenkort für Deportierte in Hamburg eingeweiht
Deutschlandfunk: Gedenkort Hannoverscher Bahnhof eingeweiht
Hamburger Abendblatt: Vom heutigen Lohsepark aus führten die Gleise in den Tod
Die Welt: Gedenkort Hannoverscher Bahnhof feierlich eingeweiht
Die Welt online: Ein Ort der Schande und der Trauer für Hamburg
Jüdische Allgemeine: Hannoverscher Bahnhof eingeweiht
Fink Hamburg: Ich habe Auschwitz überlebt
taz: Porajmos und Abschiebepolitik
LN Online: Gedenkstätte für deportierte Juden, Roma und Sinti