The Jewish Cemetery and the Missing House

This point of interest is available as audio on the tour: Visit Berlin, A symbolic and dynamic capital
On your right, you’ll see a moving statue depicting a group of people, adults and childrenwith emaciated faces and vacant expressions . This memorial reminds us of the presence of Berlin’s once oldest Jewish cemetery, desecrated by the Gestapo in 1943. Determined to erase all traces of the city’s Jewish heritage, the Nazis removed the gravestones, where now only a few remain along the wall.
Nearby, ,stood Berlin’s first Jewish hospice, built in the 19th century and destroyed too. From 1942 onwards, around 55,000 Jews were gathered here before being deported to their final destination, death camps.
Just 100 meters ahead on your left, you’ll come across what is known as “The Missing House”. This is a building destroyed during the war that was deliberately left unreconstructed as a tribute to those who lived there and became victims of Nazism. The idea for this memorial came from artist Chistian Boltanski.
With the help of a group of students, he placed plaques on each side of the empty walls. They bear the names of those who were killed, positioned as close as possible to the apartments they once occupied. A subtle yet powerful way of emphasizing that the void created can never be refilled.
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