Day 8 – Evening Exploration of the Jewish Quarter in Berlin

After checking into our hotel and a quick dinner nearby several members of our TOP group set off to explore the neighborhood. Our hotel (see link below) was situated direction between the Alexanderplatz train station and the Hackescher Markt S-Bahn station. If looking for places to stay, I highly recommend this location. Public transportation is the way to go in this city and there was lots to do around our area, however, if we wanted to venture to other parts of the city both train stations were within a few blocks.

We chose to head in the direction of the Hackescher Markt S-Bahn, which is one of only two stations that has been preserved in the original red-brick. The area surrounding the station has a variety of outdoor cafes and restaurants, as well as a farmers market on Thursday and Saturday. Across the street from the station are courtyards with local boutique shops, galleries and outdoor cinema houses. This was an area you could spend hours exploring as each alley hid a variety of stores and restaurants hidden from the main street. As beautiful as the area is, I was completely shocked that it has been completely revitalized. This same area was in near ruins in the early 1990’s with the fall of the GDR. However, after reunification, significant work has been done to bring back the culture of the area and it is now seen as a very desirable area to live.

As we explored down one alley we came across Otto Weidt’s brushes and brooms workshop for the blind. This alley contains beautiful images painted on the wall. These dramatic artworks exemplify the historic, cultural and artistic influences of the neighborhood. One image is of Anne Frank and serves as a remembrance to her life. This area I learned was known as the Jewish Quarter of the city, as a large number of Jewish migrants arrived here in the mid 1860’s. Prior to the rise of the Nazi regime, many Jewish citizens called this area home. By 1930, nearly a fourth of the individuals working and living in this neighborhood were Jewish. As Jewish individuals began to be persecuted by the Nazi regime, Otto Weidt protected his Jewish workers from deportation by providing them with access to false identity papers and finding several individuals places to hid. A museum now stands on the grounds of one of workshops where his workers found refuge. (See link below for information on visiting this museum.)

During our exploration we also happened across the oldest Jewish cemetery in Berlin. This cemetery was destroyed by the Gestapo in 1943 and now only one memorial tombstone of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn is left on the grounds.

We also passed the memorial outside the Jewish cemetery, which serves a reminder of the roundups of individuals in this exact spot from 1942-1943.

Down the street we also discovered the “missing house”. Here there is literally a missing house, an empty space between two buildings. This “missing house” serves as a WWII memorial as the home was destroyed during Allied bombings in Februrary 1945. Across from the space are plaques with the names of the inhabitants of the missing house. This is one of many powerful reminders of the detrimental impact war can have.

One thing I noticed as we walked through the neighborhood were the abundant amount of stumbling stones. I learned about these stones during my first day in Göttingen, where it was explained that each stone lists the victim’s name, date of birth, deportation date and death date if known. Gunter Demnig is the artist behind the stones and originally came up with the idea because “a person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten”. As we walked further, house after house we passed had these stones outside the front steps, which to me served as a silent reminder of the atrocities of the Holocaust. I began counting these stones and within 3 blocks I counted over 31 stumbling stones. As I wrote this blog post, I looked back at what was written and discovered that not one of the 31 individuals that I had come across tonight survived. With my research of the stumbling stones (see link below) I later discovered the chilling fact that 55,000 Jewish citizens of Berlin were murdered during the Holocaust. I plan to use these stumbling stones within my Holocaust instruction over the next year as they are a small memorial that have taken a big place in my heart.

We ended our evening at the Clärchens Ballhaus, a restaurant with a unique vibe and a great history. It was first opened in 1913 and survived WWI, WWII, and the GDR, and Quentin Tarantino even filmed a movie here. It has served as a dance hall for decades and the night we ventured in was no exception. Monday’s are salsa nights and we were able to grab a table in the outside garden and watch as locals practiced their dance moves! This is a place where you can really live as the locals do!